Timeline of the demographics of Palestine (region)

! conflicting: some estimates conflict among different researchers

|+ Overview of the demographics of the region of Palestine from the 1st century CE through 1947 (in thousands)

! style="vertical-align:top;" | Year

! style="vertical-align:top;" | Source

! style="vertical-align:top;" | Jewish

! style="vertical-align:top;" | Pagan

! style="vertical-align:top;" | Samar-
itanAll Samaritan population figures after 1500: {{cite web| title = The Samaritan Update | website = The Samaritanupdate.com | url = http://www.thesamaritanupdate.com/ | date = 5 June 2022}}

! style="vertical-align:top;" | Chris-tian

! style="vertical-align:top;" | Muslim

! style="vertical-align:top;" | Total

! style="vertical-align:top;" | Driving events

| {{dts|1|format=hide}}0–100
(1st c.) CE

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | BachiFigures are from Roberto Bachi's work: {{cite book |last1=Bachi |first1=Roberto |title=The Population of Israel |date=1977 |publisher=C.I.C.R.E.D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_stQQAACAAJ |access-date=11 December 2023 |language=en}} as cited by Sergio DellaPergola in: {{Cite journal | url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/37f9/76b1ef3efc9d44daa3f00846f6ec06905efe.pdf| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180820105737/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/37f9/76b1ef3efc9d44daa3f00846f6ec06905efe.pdf| archive-date= 2018-08-20| title = Demography in Israel/Palestine: Trends, Prospects, Policy Implications| last= Pergola| first=Sergio della | date=2001| website=Semantic Scholar| s2cid=45782452}}

| style="text-align:center;" | Majority

|

|

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | ...

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| style="text-align:center;" | 1,000–
2,500
{{cite journal |last1=DellaPergola |first1=Sergio |title=Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications |quote=Table 2|journal=The American Jewish Year Book |date=2003 |volume=103 |page=Table 2 |s2cid=141880906 |issn=0065-8987}}

|rowspan=3 style="font-size:0.9em;line-height:1.1em" |

• 66–74 CE: First Jewish–Roman War, Roman Empire defeats Jews in 70 CE. Estimates of Jews killed or who died from famine and disease ranged from less than 300,000(Schwartz){{cite encyclopedia |year=1984 |title=Political, social and economic life in the land of Israel |encyclopedia=The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BjtWLZhhMoYC |last=Schwartz |first=Seth |editor-last1=Davies |editor-first1=William David |page=24 |isbn=978-0521772488 |editor-first2=Louis |editor-last2=Finkelstein |editor-first3=Steven T. |editor-last3=Katz}}, to 600,000 (Tacitus)Tacitus, Histories, Book V, Chapter XIII , to 1.1 million plus 97,000 captured and driven out.(Josephus){{Cite Josephus|per=1|J.|BJ|6.9.3|pace=1|text=wars|bookno=6|chap=9|sec=3|show-translator=no|show-source=no|abbr=yes}}
• 132–135 CE: Bar Kokhba revolt by Jews against Romans

• 580,000 Judean men killed in battles/raids. Others die from famine, disease and fire (Cassius Dio, Cotton, Raviv, Ben David){{Cite journal|last1=Raviv|first1=Dvir|last2=Ben David|first2=Chaim|date=2021-05-27|title=Cassius Dio's figures for the demographic consequences of the Bar Kokhba War: Exaggeration or reliable account?|journal=Journal of Roman Archaeology|volume=34|issue=2|language=en|pages=585–607|doi=10.1017/S1047759421000271|s2cid=236389017|issn=1047-7594|doi-access=free}}Mohr Siebek et al. Edited by Peter Schäfer. The Bar Kokhba War reconsidered. 2003. P142-3.
• Raviv: Archeological evidence shows Jewish settlements in Judea almost completely eradicated by 135 CE. However, Jews lived on in Galilee.
• Klein:קליין, א' (2011). היבטים בתרבות החומרית של יהודה הכפרית בתקופה הרומית המאוחרת (135–324 לסה"נ).(עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ (Doctoral thesis, Bar-Ilan University) עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 314–315. (Hebrew, Aspects in the Material Culture of Rural Judea in the Late Roman Period (135-324 AD))שדמן, ע' (Between Nahal Raba and Nahal Shilo: the layout of the rural settlement in periods 275-271, 2016). בין נחל רבה לנחל שילה: תפרוסת היישוב הכפרי בתקופות ההלניסטית, הרומית והביזנטית לאור חפירות וסקרים. עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 271–275. (Doctoral thesis, Bar-Ilan University, Hebrew) In Galilee, Roman authorities replaced many Jews with Syrians, Phoenicians, and Arabians.

| rowspan = 2 | 140 CE^†

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Avi-
Yohan
{{cite book |last1=Stemberger |first1=Gunter |title=Jews and Christians in the Holy Land: Palestine in the Fourth Century |date=1 December 1999 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-0-567-23050-8 |pages=17–22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BXuxAwAAQBAJ&q=5th+century+in+Palestine+pagan+jewish+christian |access-date=11 December 2023 |language=en}}

| {{varies|conflicting}};{{br}}700-800

| style= "text-align:center;"| ...

| {{varies|conflicting}};{{br}} "far fewer than 300,000"

| style= "text-align:center;"| ...

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| {{varies|conflicting}};{{br}} 2,500

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Broshi

| {{varies|conflicting}}

| style="text-align:center;" |

| {{varies|conflicting}}

| style="text-align:center;" |

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| {{varies|conflicting}};{{br}}<1,000
("never more than 1 million")

| {{dts|300|format=hide}}Early 300s

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Stem-
berger

| style="text-align:center;" | Largest
group

| style="text-align:center;" | 2nd-
largest

| style="text-align:center;" | 3rd-
largest

| style="text-align:center;" | Smallest
group

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

|rowspan = 3 |

• 400, cities were majority non-Jewish, most land likely owned by non-Jews.
• 400s: Western Roman Empire collapses, driving Christian immigration. Christianization. Christian majority by 500 CE. (Avi-Yonah)M. Avi-Yonah, The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule, Jerusalem 1984 chapters XI–XII

| {{dts|301|format=hide}}300s

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| style="text-align:center;" | Majority

| ...

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" | Minority

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| rowspan = 2 style="text-align:center;"|"More
than in
1st c."
An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations by Edward Kessler P72The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period By William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, P:409

| {{dts|400|format=hide}}400s

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| style="text-align:center;" | Minority

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" | Majority

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| 500s

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" |

| style="text-align:center;" |

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" |

| {{n/a|n/a}}

|

|

|628

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Butler, Gil

|style="text-align:center;" | >250
150,000 expelled in 629 plus 100,000 that remained after 629. Unknown number massacred.

|style="text-align:center;" | 30-80

|

|style="text-align:center;" | 520-570

|

|style="text-align:center;" | >950

|

• 629: Heraclius ordered massacre of Jews; ca. 150,000 left, many to Egypt. (Butler, Gil, Schäfer){{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.22756|first1=Alfred J.|last1=Butler|editor=David Mignery|title=The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of the Roman Dominion|year=1902}}Gil, Moshe: [https://books.google.com/books?id=M0wUKoMJeccC&pg=PA9 A History of Palestine, 634–1099], p. 9 (1997). Cambridge University Press{{harvnb|Schäfer|2003|p=198}}: He had promised the Jews ... amnesty ..., but was unable to hold to this. At the insistence of the leaders of the Christians, who had not forgotten the period of Jewish rule from 614 to 617, he once more expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and had to allow large numbers of them to be executed. {{harvnb|Balfour|2012|p=112}}: The patriarch of Jerusalem executed those who were known to have taken part in the killings.

| 630s

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Parkes

| style="text-align:center;" | 150–
400

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" | ...

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" |

|...

|

• 635: As Byzantine rule ended and Muslim rule began:
• Parkes:James Parkes (1949). A History of Palestine from 135 A.D. to Modern Times. Victor Gollancz. Est. 150,000–400,000 Jews in all Palestine

• Crown et al.: Palaestina Prima only, which did not include Galilee, had a population of 700,000, incl. 100,000 Jews and 30–80,000 Samaritans,{{cite book |editor1-last=Crown |editor1-first=Alan David |editor2-last=Pummer |editor2-first=Reinhard |editor3-last=Tal |editor3-first=Abraham |title=A Companion to Samaritan Studies |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |pages=70–45}} with the remaining 520-570,000 Chalcedonian and Miaphysite Christians.

• Gil: Jews and Samaritans together likely still formed a majority in 638{{cite book |last1=Gil |first1=Moshe |title=A History of Palestine, 634–1099 |page=3 | date=1997 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521599849 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M0wUKoMJeccC}}
• In the period after 638:
• Immigration of Arabs (i.e. from the Arabian Peninsula), how many is unclear
• MFA Israel: Jews flourished at first; Umar encouraged Jews to settle in Jerusalem after 500-year ban.{{cite web |url=https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/history/pages/history-%20foreign%20domination.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615042600/http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/history/pages/history-%20foreign%20domination.aspx |archive-date=2013-06-15 |title=HISTORY: Foreign Domination}}
• 688–744 (–1033): Frequent plague recurrences and devastating earthquakes in 749, 881 and 1033) caused a steady decline of the population, falling from around 1 million in the 5th c. to a lowest estimate of 400–560,000 by 1096 (start of First Crusade).{{cite book |last1=Ellenblum |first1=Ronnie |title=Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem |date=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521521871 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riHMZiH_Te4C}}{{Cite journal|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/37f9/76b1ef3efc9d44daa3f00846f6ec06905efe.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820105737/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/37f9/76b1ef3efc9d44daa3f00846f6ec06905efe.pdf|archive-date=2018-08-20|title=Demography in Israel/Palestine: Trends, Prospects, Policy Implications|last=Pergola|first=Sergio della|date=2001|website=Semantic Scholar|s2cid=45782452}}{{Cite journal |last=Broshi |first=Magen |date=1979 |title=The Population of Western Palestine in the Roman-Byzantine Period |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1356664 |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=236 |issue=236 |pages=1–10 |doi=10.2307/1356664 |issn=0003-097X |jstor=1356664 |s2cid=24341643}}Broshi, M., & Finkelstein, I. (1992). [https://www.academia.edu/40790691/M_Broshi_and_I_Finkelstein_The_Population_of_Palestine_in_Iron_Age_II_BASOR_287_1992_pp_47_60 "The Population of Palestine in Iron Age II"]. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 287(1), 47-60.

| 700s

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" |

| style="text-align:center;" |

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" |

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" |

|

|

• 700s-800s: Civil wars drove Jewish emigration
• 717: New taxes on and discrimination against Jews drove Jewish emigration
• ~750-900: Mass Islamization with Muslim majority "visible" by ~966-985 (al-Maqdisi){{cite book|author=Mukaddasi|year=1886|editor=Le Strange, G.|editor-link=Guy Le Strange|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028534265|title=Description of Syria, including Palestine|location=London|publisher=Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society}}

| 800s

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" |

| style="text-align:center;" |

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" |

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" |

|

|

• 868–905: Mass Islamization of Samaritans{{Cite book |last=Ehrlich |first=Michael |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1310046222 |title=The Islamization of the Holy Land, 634–1800 |publisher=Arc Humanity Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-64189-222-3 |pages=2–3 |oclc=1310046222}}
• 881: Acre earthquake

| 900s

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" |

| style="text-align:center;" |

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" |

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" |

|

|

| {{dts|1100|format=hide}}1095

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Ellen-
blum, Della-
Pergola
Broshi

| style="text-align:center;" |

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" |

| style="text-align:center;" |

| style="text-align:center;" | 400–
560

| rowspan=3|

• 1033: Jordan Rift Valley earthquake
• 1096–1099 1st Crusade, Crusaders massacre and enslave Jews and Muslims. Most Jerusalem Jews killed in Siege of JerusalemGoitein, S.D. "Contemporary Letters on the Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders." Journal of Jewish Studies 3 (1952), pp. 162–177, pg 163{{Cite web |url=https://www.biu.ac.il/js/rennert/history_9.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2020-10-20 |archive-date=2019-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924080936/https://www.biu.ac.il/js/rennert/history_9.html |url-status=dead}}Kedar, Benjamin Z., Phillips, Jonathan, Riley-Smith, Jonathan: [https://books.google.com/books?id=EFnUDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT82 Crusades: Volume 3], p. 82 (2016), Routledge
• 1099: Goitein: Jewish mass conversions to Islam were not widespread from 901–1265 except the persecution of Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah in 1099.{{cite journal |last1=Levy-Rubin |first1=Milka |title=New Evidence Relating to the Process of Islamization in Palestine in the Early Muslim Period: The Case of Samaria |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |date=2000 |volume=43 |issue=3 |page=263 |doi=10.1163/156852000511303 |jstor=3632444 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3632444 |access-date=21 January 2024 |language=en |quote=The evidence concerning the Jewish community comes mainly from the Geniza documents, dating mainly from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, where there is one famous event in which forced mass conversion of Jews and Christians took place: this is the persecution of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim (1009). Apart from that, although there is evidence of numerous cases of individual conversions, as Goitein remarks: "conversion to Islam was not widespread during the classical Geniza period". (Drawing on Goltein (1971) A Mediterranean Society, vol. 2, p.300 and (1978) A Mediterranean Society, vol. 3, p. 290)}}
• 1100: "By 1100 Jews had declined substantially",Gil, M. A History of Palestine, 634–1099. p. 294 1100s: Jews only about "1000 poor families". (Heynick)Frank Heynick, commenting on Maimonides's decision not to settle there a century later in {{Cite book| title = Jews and medicine, An Epic Saga |page=103| last=Heynick | first=Frank | year=2002 | publisher=KTAV Publishing House|isbn = 978-0-88125-773-1}}
• 1187: Saladin defeats Crusaders; his Ayyubid dynasty in power; some immigration of diaspora Jews
• 1260: Mamluks take power, oppress Jews, grossly mismanage economy. Great social and economic decline. Large-scale Christian and Jewish emigration, but, trickle of Jewish immigration. Jews become an even smaller minority.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WxYbDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT46 |title=Reclaiming Israel's History: Roots, Rights, and the Struggle for Peace|isbn=9781621576099|last1=Brog|first1=David|date=20 March 2017|publisher=Simon and Schuster }}
• 1347: Black Death reaches Palestine.Kelly, J. (2005). The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time. Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-000692-1.
• 1517: Ottomans take power. About 5,000 Jews live in Palestine.{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ottoman-rule-1517-1917|title=Ottoman Rule (1517-1917)}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-and-non-jewish-population-of-israel-palestine-1517-present|title=Jewish & Non-Jewish Population of Israel/Palestine (1517-Present)|publisher=Jewish Virtual Library}}{{better source needed|date=May 2022}}

| {{dts|1100|format=hide}}End
1100s

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| style="text-align:center;" | Minority

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" | Minority

| style="text-align:center;" | Majority

| style="text-align:center;" | >225

| {{dts|1300|format=hide}}1300s

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| style="text-align:center;" | Minority

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" | Minority

| style="text-align:center;" | Majority

| style="text-align:center;" | 150

| 1533-9

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| style="text-align:center;" | 5

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" | 6

| style="text-align:center;" | 145

| style="text-align:center;" | 156

|

| 1553-4

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| style="text-align:center;" | 7

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| ...

| style="text-align:center;" | 9

| style="text-align:center;" | 188

| style="text-align:center;" | 205

|

| 1690-1

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| style="text-align:center;" | 2

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | <0.2

| style="text-align:center;" | 11

| style="text-align:center;" | 219

| style="text-align:center;" | 232

|

| 1800

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| style="text-align:center;" | 7

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | <0.2

| style="text-align:center;" | 22

| style="text-align:center;" | 246

| style="text-align:center;" | 275

| style="font-size:0.9em;line-height:1.1em" |

• 1882-1903: First Aliyah about 35,000 Jews immigrate mostly from the Russian Empire and Romania. They join about 20-25,000 Jews in Palestine as of 1880.

| 1890

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| {{varies|conflicting}};{{br}}43

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | <0.2

| {{varies|conflicting}};{{br}}57

| {{varies|conflicting}};{{br}}432

| {{varies|conflicting}};{{br}}532

|

| 1890-1

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Ottoman census

| {{varies|conflicting}};{{br}}18

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | <0.2

|{{varies|conflicting}};{{br}}52

| {{varies|conflicting}};{{br}}446

| {{varies|conflicting}};{{br}}516

| style="font-size:0.9em;line-height:1.1em" |

| 1914

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| style="text-align:center;" | 94

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | <0.2

| style="text-align:center;" | 70

| style="text-align:center;" | 525

| style="text-align:center;" | 689

| style="font-size:0.9em;line-height:1.1em" |

• 1904-1914: Second Aliyah, 35–40,000 Jews immigrate, most from the Russian Empire

| 1914-5

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Ottoman census

| style="text-align:center;" | 39

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | <0.2

| style="text-align:center;" | 81

| style="text-align:center;" | 602

| style="text-align:center;" | 722

| style="font-size:0.9em;line-height:1.1em" |

• 1919-1923: Third Aliyah about 40,000 Jews immigrate, mostly from Eastern Europe

| 1922

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | British census

| style="text-align:center;" | 84

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | <0.2

| style="text-align:center;" | 71

| style="text-align:center;" | 589

| style="text-align:center;" | 752

| style="font-size:0.9em;line-height:1.1em" |

• 1924-8: Fourth Aliyah, about 80,000 Jews immigrate, about half from Poland, but also USSR, e Romania, Lithuania. 12% were from Yemen, Iraq, or elsewhere in West Asia.

| 1931

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| style="text-align:center;" | 175

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | <0.2

| style="text-align:center;" | 89

| style="text-align:center;" | 760

| style="text-align:center;" | 1,033

| rowspan=2 style="font-size:0.9em;line-height:1.1em" |

• 1929-1939: Fifth Aliyah, 250,000 Jews immigrate (of which 174,000 between 1933 and 1936). In 1936 British start to prohibit Jewish immigration.
• 1933-1948: Aliyah Bet, about 110,000 Jews immigrate from Europe without British permission

| 1947

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | Bachi

| style="text-align:center;" | 630

| {{n/a|n/a}}

| style="text-align:center;color:grey;" | <0.2

| style="text-align:center;" | 143

| style="text-align:center;" | 1,181

| style="text-align:center;" | 1,970