 In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Bal'a as “A good-sized village on very high ground, with magnificent groves of olives to the west, and supplied by cisterns.It is apparently an ancient site, having rock-cut tombs.”

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, its population was 1,259, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 1,539 residents, still all Muslim, in a total of 344 houses.In the 1945 statistics the population of Bal'a was 2,220, all Muslims, and the land area was 21,151 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.