Population grew by 87% over a decade — census

AMMAN — Jordan’s population increased by nearly 87 per cent over a decade, with the number of the capital’s residents more than doubling, according to official data released Monday. 

A report released by the Department of Statistics (DoS) on the National population and Housing Census, carried out by the department late last year, showed that the Kingdom’s population in 2004 was 5.1 million, increasing by 4.4 million to reach 9.5 million in 2015. 

The majority of the growth over the past decade came from non-Jordanians, who represent around one third of the Kingdom’s population now as DoS estimated their number at 2.9 million, of whom 1.26 million are Syrians. 

According to DoS, Jordan also hosts 636,270 Egyptians, 634,182 Palestinians, 130,911 Iraqis, 31,163 Yemenis, 22,700 Libyans and 197,385 from other nationalities. 

Nearly half, or 49.7 per cent, of non-Jordanians in the Kingdom live in Amman, which is also home to 38.6 per cent of Jordanians. 

The capital’s population more than doubled since 2004 from 1.94 million to over 4 million in 2015, of whom 2.55 million are Jordanians and 1.45 million non-Jordanians, DoS figures showed. 

In terms of population per governorate, Irbid is currently the second most populated governorate with 1.77 million, followed by Zarqa (1.36 million), Mafraq (549,948), Balqa (491,709), Karak (316,629), Jerash (237,059), Madaba (189,192), Aqaba (188,160), Ajloun (176,080), Maan (144,082) and Tafileh (96,291). 

DoS said that Jordan’s population increased by more than tenfold in the past 55 years, adding that population growth between 2004 and 2015 was around 5.3 per cent, which the department attributed to waves of forced immigration and refugees into the country. 

The DoS report said the annual population growth rate among non-Jordanians was 18 per cent, while for Jordanians it stood at 3.1 per cent. 

DoS said that the recent census covered 1.977 million households, adding that the average size of families in the Kingdom reached 4.8 members. 

Family size dropped by two members when compared with 36 years ago, according to the report, which attributed it to economic, cultural and social factors and to the change in lifestyle and living costs.