Israel’s population tops 10 million for 1st time, on eve of 77th Independence Day
Central Bureau of Statistics says nearly 10.1 million people live in Israel — 12 times as many as in 1948 — including about 45% of world’s Jews
In an annual report ahead of Independence Day, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday that Israel’s population stood at almost 10.1 million people, marking a twelvefold increase since the country was founded in 1948.
The figure, which represents an increase of some 135,000, or 1.4 percent over the previous year, includes roughly 7.7 million people, or 77.6%, who are registered as Jewish or “other” — a category that was previously counted separately. This category includes non-Arab Christians and people with no ethnicity listed, most of whom are entitled to live in Israel because of a Jewish grandparent or Israeli spouse, the CBS said.
Some 2.1 million people living in Israel, or 20.9%, are Muslim, Christian or Druze Arabs, the CBS said. Another 250,000 people, or about 2.5%, belong to neither category, and include international students, foreign workers and undocumented immigrants, the agency reported.
Over the past year, according to the report, some 174,000 babies were born in Israel, 28,000 people immigrated to the country and 50,000 Israelis died. Israel has a relatively young population, 27% of which is under the age of 18 compared with 13% aged at least 65, the CBS said.
Israel’s population grew rapidly in comparison with the world population, which grew by some 0.9% to just over 8 billion in 2023, the last year for which the World Bank has made data available. However, Israel’s population growth this year was slightly lower than it was last year, when the CBS reported that the population had grown about 1.9% to 9.9 million people.
Part of the decline could be attributed to the 24% decrease in immigration to Israel over the past year, as recorded in a pre-Independence Day report by the Aliyah and Integration Ministry on Monday.
Meanwhile, some 56,000 Israeli citizens were living abroad, the CBS said. The agency said the figure had decreased but did not say by how much.
In its report Tuesday, the CBS said about 3.5 million people have immigrated to Israel since 1948, 47.6% of whom came starting in 1990, after Soviet Jews were allowed to emigrate en masse. As of the end of 2023, the CBS said, about 45% of world Jewry lived in Israel, and 80% of Jewish Israelis had been born in the country.
Israel, which observes national holidays based on the Jewish calendar, is set to begin its 77th Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday night. Independence Day is preceded by Memorial Day, which commemorates fallen soldiers and victims of terror attacks. Memorial Day commemorations will begin with a siren and a national moment of silence at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
The Times of Israel Community.