Capital home to 804,400, Jerusalem Day stats reveal

Jerusalem’s population at the end of 2011 was 804,400, making the capital the largest municipality in Israel by a considerable margin, according to figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) ahead of Jerusalem Day Wednesday.

The capital had 499,400 Jewish residents, 281,100 Muslim residents, 14,700 Christian residents, 200 Druze and a further 9,000 residents who were not classified by religion in Interior Ministry records. Jerusalem residents make up some 10 percent of Israel’s total population.

Of the Jews in Jerusalem, who according to the statistics make up around 62% of the city’s population, 32% defined themselves as ultra-Orthodox, 21% as religious, 10% as traditional-religious, 16% as not very religious, and 19% as totally secular. Two percent of respondents did not provide a religious affiliation.

Although the population continues to increase due to births, Jerusalem still experienced a negative migration of adult residents: 7,300 people moved to the city (including 2,900 new immigrants), but 17,400 left for other localities in Israel.

In 2012, some 22,800 babies were born in Jerusalem, of whom 14,600 were Jewish and 7,900 were Muslim. Fertility rates for Jews in Jerusalem were far higher than the national average: In 2011 the average Jewish woman in the capital had 4.24 children, as compared to 2.98 in the country as a whole. The average Muslim woman in Jerusalem had 3.71 children, slightly higher than the national average of 3.51 among Muslims.

Jerusalem Day is a national holiday commemorating the reunification of the city after East Jerusalem was captured during the Six Day War in 1967. It is celebrated primarily by Israel’s national religious community.