John Gill Commentary Matthew 14:21

"And they that did eat were about five thousand men, besides women and children." — Matthew 14:21 (ASV)

And they that had eaten were about five thousand men ,
&c.] The word "about", is omitted in the Vulgate Latin, in Munster's Hebrew Gospel, and in the Syriac, Arabic, and Persian versions, which expressly say there were so many. A large number indeed, to be fed with five loaves and two fishes!

besides women and children ;
who were not taken into the account, though they all ate, and were filled, it not being usual with the Jews to number their women; and who might be near as large a number as the men: for generally there is a very great concourse of the female sex, and of children, where anything extraordinary, or out of the way, is to be seen or heard; and of this sort was a large number of Christ's audience, who only came out of curiosity, or for one sinister end or another.