48,000 new voters added to the rolls since April elections

The Central Bureau of Statistics releases the official voter figures ahead of the September 17 election.

Some 5.8 million resident Israelis are eligible to vote.

Of those 5.8 million, 14 percent are aged 18-24, 30% age 25-39, 31% age 40-59, and 25% are 60 or older.

The voter rolls grew by some 48,000 people since the April 9 race, the committee says, or 0.8% of the total.

Of those eligible voters, 79% are Jews, 16% are Arabs and 5% are from other minorities, including non-Arab Christians and non-Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

The Arab portion of the electorate is likely to grow, the figures reveals, as the Arab population is younger: 38% of Arab Israelis are under 18, compared to 32% among Jews.

The CBS figures do not include some 570,000 Israelis who are also technically eligible to vote, but have lived overseas for many years and are thought unlikely to travel to Israel to vote in next week’s race. Israel has no absentee ballots, except for some 5,000 diplomats and other officially recognized emissaries and their families.