PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

17 Statistical abstract of Israel 1991, A. Main Series p.4. The basic definitions of
"household" are parallei in the two surveys, but may of course have been implemented
somewhat differently in the field.
18 If regional variations had been due to paraBel variations in adults and children,
this ratio should have been constant over main regions.
19 See Table A.2. 1O in the Population Appendix for further references to . the
discussioh in this section.
20 The FAFO survey uses the concept Head ofHousehold in two different ways. The
starting point was the "acknowledgedl expected" Head of Household, the person
being determined on the basis of the subjective opinion of the household members.
In about 30% of the households the acknowledged Head of Household was not
available or capable for doing the Head of Household interview. Among the not
avafIable or not capable Household Heads we. distinguished between absenee
spanninga "short" time (less than 3 months) and a "Iong" time (more than 3 months).
Two thirds ofthe 30% ofHousehold Heads who were absent, were so for a short time
only, while one third was absent for a long time.
When the absenee of the Household Head was of a s.hort duration, (e.g. Head
of Household was at work, etc), a "substitute" was used as respondent speaking on
behalf of the Household Head. Any household member well informed about the
economic affairs of the household could act as substitute for the Household Head,
even though the spouse or oldest son of the Household Head were preferred.
Approximately 80% of the substitutes were spouse of the Household Head, while
8% were the oldest son. In the households where the interview was made with a
substitute, all information about the Head ofHousehold as a person still refers to the
acknowledged Household Head (and not the substitute).
When the absenee of the Head of Household had a prolonged charaeter, e.g.
when the accepted Household Head was senile, working abroad, in prison, etc.,
survey definitions overruled the subjective opinion of the household members. In
the se cases the concept of the functioning Head of Household was introduced to
include the person in actual fact in charge of running daily household affairs.
Approximately 90% of the acknowledged Household Heads were also in charge
of the daily affairs of the household, i.e. they were also thefunctioning Household
Heads. In 10% ofthe households, the functioning and the acknowledged Household
Head was not the same person. In these households the personal information about
the Head of Household refers to the functioning Household Head, and not to the
acknowledged Household Head. In more than 7 out of 10 cases where the
acknowledged and the functioning Head of Households were different persons, the
functioning Head of Household was the spouse of the acknowledged Head of
Household.
21 Israeli Ministry ofHealth (1991). Health in Judea, Samariaand Gaza: 1990- 1991,
Jerusalem.
22 Figures represent repor t ed number of deaths of infants of ages between O and 12
months per 1000 live births.
23 CaIculated by the author using unweighted aggregated data.
24 The reported birth rates have always been more than 40 births per 1000
population since 1968.
25 Research in progress, resuIts are expected to be published in July, 1993.
26 To the best of the author's knowledge.
27 The Arab Thought Forum has published an estimate of the population total for
each ofthe West Bank localities. Theirestimates of population size foreach locality
were deri ved by direct interviewing of well informed persons in each locality.
28 HABITAT (1989) has published population projections for OPT using ICBS
estimate of input parameters. Planning and Research Center of Jerusalem (PRC) is
79