When the amirate of Transjordan was created by the British in 1921, the large majority of the people consisted of an assortment of tribally organized and tribally oriented groups, some of whom were sedentary cultivators and some nomadic or seminomadic. The total population was fewer than 400,000 people. By 1988 nearly 3,000,000 people, more than half of whom were Palestinians, colonised the region east of the Jordan River-Dead Sea-Gulf of Aqaba line, referred to as the East Bank. The term Palestinians refers narrowly to citizens of the British mandated territory of Palestine (1922-48). Narrowly defined, the term Transjordanian referred to a citizen of the Amirate of Transjordan (1921-46). Generally speaking, a Transjordanian was considered a Muslim or Christian indigenous to the East Bank region, which was within the approximate boundaries of the contemporary state of Jordan. The formerly rural society of Jordan had been transformed since freedom into an increasingly urban one; by 1985 nearly 70 % of the population resided in urban centers that were growing at an annual rate of between 4 and 5%.

Every year since the late 1950s, increasing numbers of Jordan's youth have received formal training in the nation's rapidly expanding education system. By the late 1980s, all children aged 6 years to twelve years were attending free and compulsory primary schools. Nearly 80% of children between the ages of 13 and 15 attended 3 years preparatory schools, also free and compulsory. But possession of an education, once a near certain vehicle for upward mobility, no longer guaranteed employment. Unemployment was likely one of the most critical issues facing Jordan in the late 1980s. It was accompanied by growing political frustration and radicalization over the Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.