Bethlehem

===Population===
{|class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left:15px;"
|-
! Year
! Population
|-
|1867 ||style="text-align:center;"|3,000–4,000<ref name="Miller"/>
|-
|[[Village Statistics, 1945|1945]] ||style="text-align:center;"|8,820<ref>{{cite web
 |first=Sami
 |last=Hadawi
 |author-link=Sami Hadawi
 |publisher=Palestine Liberation Organization – Research Center
 |title=Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine
 |url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Jerusalem/Page-056.jpg
 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20080805000658/http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Jerusalem/Page-056.jpg
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-date=August 5, 2008
 |access-date=June 16, 2011
}}</ref><ref name=1945p24>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p24.jpg 24]</ref>
|-
|1961 ||style="text-align:center;"|22,453<ref>Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. [http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/JordanCensusPages/JordanCensus1961-p07.pdf 7] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119060637/http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/JordanCensusPages/JordanCensus1961-p07.pdf |date=January 19, 2018 }}</ref>
|-
|1983 ||style="text-align:center;"|16,300<ref>Census by [[Israel Central Bureau of Statistics]]</ref>{{Verify source|date=May 2012}}
|-
|1997 ||style="text-align:center;"|21,930<ref name="PCBSCensus">[https://web.archive.org/web/20120111192435/http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/phc_97/bet_t1.aspx Palestinian Population by Locality, Sex and Age Groups in Years: Bethlehem Governorate] (1997) [[Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics]]. Retrieved December 23, 2007. {{dead link|date=May 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
|-
|2007 ||style="text-align:center;"|25,266<ref name="PCBSCensus"/>
|-
|2017 ||style="text-align:center;"|28,591<ref name="PrelimCensus2017" />
|}
[[File:Mosque of Omar with city.jpg|thumb|[[Mosque of Omar (Bethlehem)|Mosque of Omar]] and The [[Lutheranism|Evangelical Lutheran Christmas]], Salesian Church of the [[Sacred Heart of Jesus]]]]
According to [[Defter|Ottoman tax records]], Christians made up roughly 60% of the population in the early 16th century, while the Christian and [[Muslim]] population became equal by the mid-16th century. However, there were no Muslim inhabitants counted by the end of the century, with a recorded population of 287 adult male tax-payers. Christians, like all non-Muslims throughout the Ottoman Empire, were required to pay the [[jizya]] tax.<ref name="Singer">Singer, 1994, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mrsAw_mk1d0C&pg=PA80 80] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231205315/https://books.google.com/books?id=mrsAw_mk1d0C&pg=PA80 |date=December 31, 2015 }}</ref> In 1867, an American visitor describes the town as having a population of 3,000 to 4,000; of whom about 100 were [[Protestantism|Protestants]], 300 were Muslims and "the remainder belonging to the Latin and Greek Churches with a few Armenians."<ref name="Miller">Ellen Clare Miller, 'Eastern Sketches – notes of scenery, schools and tent life in Syria and Palestine'. Edinburgh: William Oliphant and Company. 1871. p. 148.</ref> Another report from the same year puts the Christian population at 3,000, with an additional 50 Muslims.<ref name="Malet1868">{{cite book|author=William Wyndham Malet|title=The olive leaf: a pilgrimage to Rome, Jerusalem, and Constantinople, in 1867, for the reunion of the faithful|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h3IBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA116|access-date=November 9, 2010|year=1868|publisher=T. Bosworth|page=116|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104164636/https://books.google.com/books?id=h3IBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA116|archive-date=November 4, 2013}}</ref> An 1885 source put the population at approximately 6,000 of "principally Christians, Latins and Greeks" with no Jewish inhabitants.<ref name="JewishIntelligenceVol1">'{{cite journal |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Bethlehem |url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=uhcFAAAAQAAJ&rdid=book-uhcFAAAAQAAJ&rdot=1 |journal=The Jewish Intelligence |date=January 1885 |page=5 |access-date=October 22, 2014 |archive-date=December 21, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141221004753/https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=uhcFAAAAQAAJ&rdid=book-uhcFAAAAQAAJ&rdot=1 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[1922 census of Palestine|census of 1922]] lists Bethlehem as having 6,658 residents (5,838 Christians, 818 Muslims, and two Jews),<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922 |title=Palestine Census ( 1922)}}</ref> increasing in [[1931 census of Palestine|1931]] to 6,804 (5,588 Christians, 1,219 Muslims, five with no religion, and two Jews) with 506 in nearby suburbs (251 Muslims, 216 Christians, and 39 Jews).<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/palestine-census-1931 |title=Palestine Census 1931}}</ref>

The 1938 village statistics list the population as 7,520 with 499 in nearby suburbs (including 42 Jews).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VillageStatistics1938orig.pdf |title=Village Statistics |year=1938 |pages=49}}</ref> The [[Village Statistics, 1945|1945 village statistics]] list Bethlehem's population as 8,820 (6,430 Christians, 2,370 Muslims, and 20 "other").<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VillageStatistics1945orig.pdf |title=Village Statistics |year=1945 |pages=24}}</ref>

In 1948, the religious makeup of the city was 85% Christian, mostly of the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic denominations, and 13% Muslim.<ref name="AP">{{cite book|author=Andrea Pacini|title=Socio-Political and Community Dynamics of Arab Christians in Jordan, Israel, and the Autonomous Palestinian Territories|pages=282|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-19-829388-0}}</ref> In the 1967 census taken by Israel authorities, the town of Bethlehem proper numbered 14,439 inhabitants, its 7,790 Muslim inhabitants represented 53.9% of the population, while the Christians of various denominations numbered 6,231 or 46.1%.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0003_0_02860.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729042326/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0003_0_02860.html|url-status=dead|title=Bethlehem|archive-date=July 29, 2013}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=June 2022}}

In the PCBS's 1997 census, the city had a population of 21,670, including a total of 6,570 [[Palestinian refugees|refugees]], accounting for 30.3% of the city's population.<ref name="PCBSCensus"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/_PCBS/census/phc_97/bet_t6.aspx |title=Palestinian Population by Locality and Refugee Status |access-date=January 22, 2008 |publisher=[[Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120516122047/http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/_PCBS/census/phc_97/bet_t6.aspx |archive-date=May 16, 2012}}</ref> In 1997, the age distribution of Bethlehem's inhabitants was 27.4% under the age of 10, 20% from 10 to 19, 17.3% from 20 to 29, 17.7% from 30 to 44, 12.1% from 45 to 64 and 5.3% above the age of 65. There were 11,079 males and 10,594 females.<ref name="PCBSCensus"/> In the 2007 PCBS census, Bethlehem had a population of 25,266, of which 12,753 were males and 12,513 were females. There were 6,709 housing units, of which 5,211 were households. The average household consisted of 4.8 family members.<ref name="PCBS07">{{cite web |url=http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_PCBS/Downloads/book1487.pdf |title=2007 PCBS Census |access-date=April 16, 2009 |publisher=[[Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics]] |page=117 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101210081942/http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_PCBS/Downloads/book1487.pdf |archive-date=December 10, 2010}}</ref> By 2017, the population was 28,591.<ref name="PrelimCensus2017" />