section_path: Demographics
section_name: Demographics
paragraph_text: Demographics
  
  In 2010, approximately 1.6 million people lived in the Gaza Strip, almost 1.0 million of them were UN-registered refugees. The majority descend from refugees who were driven from or left their homes during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The Strip's population has continued to increase since that time, mainly due to a total fertility rate which peaked at 8.3 children per woman in 1991. This fell to 4.4 children per woman in 2013 which was still among the highest worldwide.
  
  In a ranking by total fertility rate, this places Gaza 34th of 224 regions. This leads to the Gaza Strip having an unusually high proportion of children in the population, with 43.5% of the population being 14 or younger and a median age in 2014 of 18, compared to a world average of 28, and 30 in Israel. The only countries with a lower median age are countries in Africa such as Uganda where it was 15.