THE SHRINKING MAP OF PALESTINE
Tap a year below. The land drains away in place.
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Share of historic Palestine under Palestinian control
100 percent — a single territory
One country, one territory
Britain administered Palestine as a single unit after the First World War. The Zionist movement had been working since the 1880s to displace Palestinians and appropriate their land, but the demographic picture was not close.
Palestinian population, 1922 census
670,000
Jewish population, 1922 census
84,000
Sources, method and limitations
Silhouettes are schematic vector drawings based on the boundaries of Mandatory Palestine, the 1949 armistice lines and the Oslo-era area divisions. They convey proportion and direction of change, not cadastral boundaries.
Population and displacement figures for 1922, 1948 and 1967 follow the compilation published by Visualizing Palestine in May 2013, drawing on the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, Badil, Haaretz, the Levy Institute and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. The 1920 stage is labeled by the year the Mandate took effect; its population figures come from the 1922 census, the first conducted.
Current figures verified 19 July 2026 against the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics 2026 refugee release, UNRWA registration data, and B’Tselem on settlements and Area C.
The four stages do not measure an identical quantity. 1920 reflects territorial extent and demographic majority; 1948 and 1967 reflect territory outside Israeli sovereign control; 2026 reflects Palestinian civil administration. Percentages are approximate and vary with the treatment of East Jerusalem, the Dead Sea surface and no-man’s-land areas.
The Gaza outline does not attempt to represent current access restrictions, displacement orders or militarized zones. For present conditions consult live UN OCHA reporting.
