Ramallah, Dec 31 (IANS): The number of Palestinians living in the Palestinian territories, Israel and abroad amounted to about 14 million by the end of 2021, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) has said.

Among the 14 million Palestinians, 5.3 million live in the Palestinian territories, 1.7 million in Israel, and over 7 million abroad, the PCBS on Thursday added in a report.

In the Palestinian territories, 3.2 million live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while 2.1 million in the coastal enclave of Gaza strip, it found.

Of the 7 million Palestinians living abroad, 6.3 million live in Arab countries and about 750,000 elsewhere, Xinhua news agency reported.

The PCBS report said that more than one-third of the total Palestinian population are under 15-years-old.

There was a decrease in the percentage of individuals aged 65 years and above, which is estimated at about 3 per cent in the Palestinian territories at the end of 2021, it added.

The number of school children for the current academic year reached 1,338,353 in the Palestinian territories, of whom 665,294 are males and 673,059 females.

The report said that Israel has demolished or destroyed 975 buildings in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2021, and about 30 per cent of the destroyed buildings were in East Jerusalem.

More than 700,000 Israeli settlers live in 151 settlements established on Palestinian lands in the West Bank, it said, adding that the number of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel reached about 4,650.