According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Salim had a population of 6,266 inhabitants in 2017.

[4] The village has been populated in Early Bronze I, Iron Age II, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad and Crusader/Ayyubid eras.

[8] According to Samaritan tradition, Salim was founded by the biblical figure of Jared son of Mahalalel, and this is where 4th-century High Priest Baba Rabba built his sixth synagogue.

[11] The text mentions an event during the Fourth Fitna (811–819) when a rebel named Abu 'Uf, from the Judham tribe, reached Salem and was killed there during battles between Muslim factions.

In 1596, it appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of Nablus.

[15] In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Salim as a small village, but evidently ancient, surrounded by olive-trees and with two springs to the north.