The Palestinian Territory is divided into several administrative and statistical levels. These divisions are used by PCBS in selecting samples, disseminating of statistical data, and facilitating fieldwork. The administrative divisions are also used by planning institutions and setting up development plans for the various geographic levels. The Palestinian Territory is divided into two administrative regions: the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Moreover, each region is divided into several governorates, which are divided into a number of localities.

For purposes serving PCBS and contributing to providing statistical data on geographic levels, which is important in the process of setting up development plans, each locality was divided into a group of statistical areas in accordance with specific standards. Additionally, each statistical area is divide into a group of enumeration areas. The divisions are explained below.  

1.       Governorates

The Palestinian Territory is divided into sixteen governorates, including eleven governorates in the West Bank and five governorates in Gaza Strip. The governorates are arranged from north to south and from east to west as follows:

Jenin, Tubas, Tulkarm, Nablus, Qalqiliya, Salfit, Ramallah & Al Bireh, Jericho & Al Aghwar, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, North Gaza, Gaza, Deir Al Balah, Khan Yunis, and Rafah.

Each governorate is given special code starting with 01 for the Jenin governorate; a quintuple hierarchy is used between the code of each governorate to absorb any changes in the event that new governorates are approved. The governorates and their codes are explained in the following table. 

2.       Localities

Governorates include groups of towns, villages, and refugee camps; each of them is called locality. Each locality has serial national code of four figures starting from 0005. The astrological site for a point in the middle of the locality (centroid) was determined in accordance with topographical maps 1/50000 according to the local coordinates network. Then they were arranged in a serial manner according to their geographic site from north to south and from east to west. A quintuple hierarchy was placed between the code of each locality in order to allow future addition of any national codes for any new localities. The codes of the governorates were integrated with the national locality code to form a 6 digits locality national code. The first two digits from the left are the governorate code, while the left four digits are the locality code. For instance, the first locality, starting from the north (Zububa locality in Jenin governorate), took the following code 010005.

3.       Statistical areas

Localities of 4,000 and more inhabitants were divided into areas (this is the minimum statistical limit for considering a locality urban, according to PCBS definition for defining the type of locality). Each statistical area has a population of 3,000-5,000. Streets and obvious natural marks are considered as boundaries for each area.

The following factors were taken into consideration in dividing localities into statistical areas:

1.       Date and type of building

2.       The main job in the statistical area

3.       Type of land use such as housing, industrial, services, government centers

4.       The social characteristics of the inhabitants (religion, big families, traditions, living standards)

The statistical areas were approved by the local councils of the localities included in the division.

4.       Enumeration areas

An enumeration area is a geographic area that is defined on the maps and on the ground. Its boundaries must be clearly defined (roads, streets, footpaths, walls, administrative boundaries). An enumeration area can be part of a large locality or a small village (small locality regardless of the number of it housing units). For census purposes, each locality was divided into several enumeration areas. The boundaries of each enumeration area were shown on the maps taking the following into consideration:

1.       The enumeration area includes approximately 150 housing units

2.       Each enumeration area is surrounded by natural demarcations such as roads, mountains, and space to ease recognition on the ground

3.       Prepare enumeration areas within each locality separately taking into consideration their administrative boundaries i.e. if there were localities or parts of localities with less than 150 housing units, they would be marked as independent enumeration areas.

4.       The statistical areas must be divided into enumeration areas. The boundaries of the statistical areas must match the external boundaries of the enumeration areas located within the statistical area. 

5.       Each enumeration area was given independent serial numbers starting from 001.