As of mid-2011, there are 124 Israeli settlements in the West Bank (not including East Jerusalem). 121 were established with official government recognition. The remaining three were established as Nahal army settlements and have since been civilianized by the government, although no official decision on the matter was announced. Another 100 or so settlements commonly referred to as “outposts” are dotted throughout the West Bank. These are typically smaller settlements that were established with governmental assistance, but are not officially recognized.

In East Jerusalem and its environs, which Israel annexed to the municipality of Jerusalem after 1967, there are 12 large Israeli neighborhoods that are also deemed settlements under international law. Also, settler enclaves have been built in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods in this area, aided by the government and the Jerusalem Municipality.

There are some 498,000 settlers living in the West Bank: 186,646 in neighborhoods in East Jerusalem (according to figures of the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies for the end of 2009) and 311,431 in the rest of the West Bank (according to figures of Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics for the end of 2010).

According to the CBS, the growth rate for the settler population (excluding East Jerusalem) in 2010 was more than two and a half times higher than that of the general population in Israel: 4.9 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively. Furthermore, 26.4 percent of this increase in settler population were Israelis who moved from inside Israel or new immigrants to Israel who settled there.