Immigration to Israel dropped sharply following Oct. 7 assault — statistics bureau
Population at end of 2023 stands at 9.842 million people, with a lower growth rate than last year and spike in deaths seen in October due to Hamas massacres
There was a sharp decrease in the number of people moving to Israel in the wake of the October 7 Hamas onslaught, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday, as it released its annual end-of-year statistics.
The report also showed a 1.9% growth in the overall population of the State of Israel, which now stands at 9.842 million people, a lower rate of growth than seen a year earlier, which was 2.2%.
And while the total number of deaths in 2023 (approximately 49,500) was lower than a year earlier (52,500), there was a spike seen in October 2023 due to the Hamas massacre in southern Israel and the subsequent war.
Overall in 2023, approximately 45,000 people moved to Israel, a significant drop from the figure a year earlier, which was around 73,000, according to CBS. The government body noted that the uptick in 2022 was largely linked to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. An estimated 25,000 immigrants moved to Israel in 2021.
In the first half of 2023, immigration to Israel was higher than 2019-2021, but it dipped sharply following the Hamas massacre on October 7 and the ongoing war.
In October 2023, just 1,163 people moved to Israel, compared to 2,364 people in September. And the October 2023 figure was significantly lower than the same figure in 2022 (6,091), as well as the correlating numbers in 2019-2021.
The numbers picked up slightly in November, with 1,534 people making the move, but still remained far lower than in previous months, as well as lower than the figure in November over the past four years.
The month with the highest number of people moving to Israel in 2023 was January, the Central Bureau of Statistics report finds, when 7,664 people immigrated to Israel.
CBS reported that the majority of those moving to Israel in 2023, 70.3%, came from Russia, with 4.5% coming from Ukraine, 3.8% from Belarus, 2.1% from France and the rest from elsewhere.
Overall in 2023, around 179,000 babies were born in the State of Israel, with 73.3% born to Jewish mothers, 24.1% to Arab mothers and 2.6% to others.
Among the overall current population of 9.842 million people, approximately 73.2% of them are Jewish, 21.1% are Arab and 5.7% are other.
