More than 174,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, authorities announced Thursday (December 21st), in the first-ever census of its kind for a country where demographics have long been a sensitive subject.
The census was carried out by the government's Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee in 12 Palestinian camps as well as 156 informal "gatherings" across the country, AFP reported.
The result of 174,422 Palestinian refugees is much lower than previous estimates of up to 500,000.
Lebanon has not carried out a census of its own citizens since 1932, making the 2017 count even more remarkable.
It sheds light on the living conditions of 174,422 Palestinian refugees, as well as another 18,601 Palestinians who fled the neighbouring conflict in Syria to camps in Lebanon.
It found the population split evenly between men and women, but nearly half of the total are 24 or younger.
Around 7.2% are illiterate, but an impressive 93.6% of children aged between three to 13 were enrolled in schools. Around 18% of the workforce is unemployed.
Lebanon's Palestinian camps suffer serious problems, with varying degrees of poverty, overcrowding, unemployment, poor housing conditions and lack of infrastructure.
Announcing the results, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said Lebanon had a "duty" towards Palestinians.
"Over the past decades, the social and humanitarian problems faced by Palestinian refugees have accumulated, and the reality in the camps has become tragic on all levels," al-Hariri said at the Grand Serail.
The census result is much lower than the 469,331 people registered in Lebanon with the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.
"UNRWA does not have a headcount of Palestinian refugees who are currently residing in Lebanon. What we have as an agency are official registration records for the number of registered Palestine refugees in Lebanon," spokeswoman Huda Samra said.
"If someone registered with UNRWA in Lebanon decided to live outside Lebanon, they do not notify us," she said.
