2 Demography and household characteristics It is not only in the legal status of its residents that the demography of Jerash camp is distinctive; ex-Gazans in Jerash stand out with their overall larger households46, the greater proportion of three-generation households, and higher fertility. Household size The mean household size amongst ex-Gazans in Jerash is 5.9 persons, while for other exGazans and non-ex-Gazans in other camps this is significantly lower at 5.1 persons. This pattern is confirmed by the median47 household size, which is 6.0 persons for ex-Gazans in Jerash, and 5.0 persons for all others. Furthermore, ex-Gazans in Jerash are more likely to belong to very large households, with 29% of households comprising eight or more members. This compares to only 16% of ex-Gazan households outside Jerash, which again is in line with non-ex-Gazans (15%). Ex-Gazans, both inside and outside Jerash, are a younger population than non-exGazans (Table 1), implying higher fertility rates. This is demonstrated in the higher proportion of individuals under 15 years of age: 44.5% amongst ex-Gazans in Jerash and 44% amongst ex-Gazans in other camps, compared to 39% amongst non-ex-Gazans. Jerash also has a particularly high proportion of three-generation households (nearly twice that of the other groups), paralleled by a lower proportion of single-parent or nuclear family households (those including just parent(s) and their children) (Table 2). However, the observant reader of the Table will see that Jerash camp in fact has a higher proportion of nuclear households with children both under and over 15 years of age. This apparent paradox is explained by higher fertility, i.e. a higher number of children, and possibly — but we lack data to substantiate this — combined with delayed separation of adult children from their parents caused by poverty. Three-generation households in Jerash camp have an average of eight members (both mean and median), compared to seven in the other groups, contributing to overall large household size. Nevertheless, it is larger nuclear households which contribute most to the difference in average household size between ex-Gazans in Jerash and all others: looking at nuclear households with children under the age of 15, over 13% of such ex-Gaza households in Jerash have eight or more members, compared to nearly 6% and 5% amongst exGazans elsewhere and other Palestinian refugees, respectively (Figure 1). A household is defined as a unit which pools its resources together, and whose members usually sleep and eat (most meals) together. 47 The ‘median’ is the mid-point in a distribution sorted from the lowest to the highest value, with an equal number of scores below and above the mid-point, regardless of the value of the scores. The ‘mean’, on the other hand, is the arithmetic average of all scores in the distribution. 46 ‘Just getting by’ Ex-Gazans in Jerash and other refugee camps in Jordan 27