G AZA S TRIP Fabiolah Jones Dani Heller Period 9/10

I NTRODUCTION o Climate : temperate, mild winters, dry and warm to hot summers o Culture: Muslim: 99.3%, Christian: 0.7% o Language: Arabic, Hebrew(spoken by many Palestinians) and English(not understood by many) o Population Size as of 2009: 1,551,859

D EMOGRAPHICS The population size of the Gaza Strip is 1,551,869 with a total fertility rate of 5.03 child born per woman. The birth rate is births/population while the death rate is 3.44 deaths/population. The doubling time growth rate is and the 10- year growth rate is.464. The life expectancy for males are years of age and years of age for females.

D EMOGRAPHICS CONT ’ D Sex Ratios: -At birth, for every 1 female there are 1.06 males. -Under age 15, for every 1 female there are 1.06 males. -Between the ages of 15-64, there are1.05 males for every female. -From 65 years and over, there are.68 male for every female. -For the total population, there are 1.04 males for every female. A possible reason why there could be more males than females from birth to age 64 is

R EASONS FOR G ROWTH Political- Israel controlled Gaza Strip’s offshore maritime access Environmental- desertification, water- borne disease and contamination of underwater resources are currently issues in Gaza Strip Environmental- also there are limited resources making it hard for people to survive Economic- Palestinians gained control of Gaza’s economy by signing the Cairo Agreement in May 1994 and ever since then they have destroyed Gaza’s economy(downfall of economy was due to Israel’s blockade). The Hamas are currently in control of the area in Gaza Strip.

REASONS FOR GROWTH CONT’D Cultural/ religious influences- Ever since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, the people were afraid they would force the Islamic law upon them Literacy/ Education- educational systems were controlled by others their education system was weak. Now the Palestinians have create an educational system and broken it up into 5 different cycles. First cycle is preprimary for ages 4-5 then they have a 10 years of education from ages 6-15, then they have secondary education which is 2 years for ages then its postsecondary, which is 2 years of college and finally its higher education which is 4 more years of college.

P OPULATION D YNAMICS The 10 year growth rate for the Gaza Strip is.464. The population in July of 1990 was 615,575 (2,500 Israeli settlers); July of 2002 was 1,225,911 (over 5,000 Israeli settlers); July 2005 was 1,376,289 (about 7,000 Israeli settlers). Years Population Growth Rate

P OPULATION P YRAMIDS A GE AND SEX DISTRIBUTION IN 2000

P OPULATION P YRAMID CONT ’ D A GE AND SEX DISTRIBUTION IN 2010

P OPULATION P YRAMIDS P REDICTED AGE AND SEX DISTRIBUTION FOR 2050

E CONOMIC C HALLENGES The Palestinian economy is reliant on trading and 98% of all its exports are with Israel and Jordan. The unemployment rate stands at 37%. Their rank is 184 out of 200. Reasons why there is much unemployment is because agriculture and small-scale industry are the main sources to feed the economy.

S OCIAL C HALLENGES The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians have put stress on the civilians of the Gaza Strip. A study showed that 21.5% of school children have high levels of anxiety and 43.4% of teachers have students that have mental health problems.

N ATURAL R ESOURCES The Gaza Strip’s groundwater, that is used for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes, is being polluted with waste, sewage, and agrochemicals. 80% of the available groundwater is unsuited for either human or animal consumption.

C ONFLICT IN THE G AZA S TRIP Israelis vs. Palestinians

S OLUTIONS FOR THE FUTURE Israel must agree to reduce embargo on Gaza Strip letting all the supplies necessary for life including food, clothes.etc while Hamas needs to stop attacking Israel so they won’t hurt us I believe If we all could just get along that would be awesome and there would be peace and no war I also think that Gaza Strip has had a rough history and will recover in the history if they can fix the problems in their country and any political issues.

W ORKS C ITED 1990 CIA World Factbook. Photius Coutsoukis, 07 Feb Web. 4 Feb CIA World Factbook. About.com, 1 Nov Web. 4 Feb CIA World Factbook Die.net. Web. 4 Feb Social adversities and anxiety disorders in the Gaza Strip 78.5 (1998). BMJ Journals. Web. 5 Feb World Factbook. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 19 Jan Web. 5 Feb nt&view=article&id=163&Itemid=212