Israel's Shafi Shamron settlement near the West Bank city of Nablus on 22 December 2009. [MaanImages/Rami Swidan]

The number of Israelis living in illegal West Bank settlements increased more than 40 times between 1972 and 2009, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

By comparison, the number of Israelis living in Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan has doubled during the same period, PCBS' statistics revealed. By the end of 2009, the report read, there were 517,774 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, the majority of whom live in occupied East Jerusalem (approximately 267,325).

In the Ramallah and Al-Bireh district, the settler population reached 92,625, PCBS reported, while in Bethlehem the number reached 57,325 and 31,404 in Salfit. The lowest settler population was recorded in Tubas at 1,340 residents.

The report revealed that in 2009, the number of settlements in the West Bank was 144, the majority of which, 26, are located in East Jerusalem.

The PCBS said the data indicated that settlements in the West Bank were distributed into four strips, defined as follows:

-- The eastern strip, which includes 28 settlements
-- The mountain strip, which includes 31 settlements
-- The western hills strip, which includes 48 settlements
-- The greater Jerusalem strip, which includes 37 settlements

You can read the original report in its entirety here.