Israel’s Population at the Jewish New Year

Israel’s Government Statistical Bureau issued the latest statistics on the country’s population at the start of the Jewish New Year.

* Israel’s population has reached 8.585 million.

* Of them, 74.8% are Jews (6.419 million), 20.8% are Arabs (1.786 million) and 4.4% are Christians non-Arabs, other religions or no religions (380,000).

* 189,000 babies were born, 46,000 passed away, and another 30,000 became citizens, of whom 25,000 were new immigrants. 

* Since last Rosh Hashana, Israel’s population has grown by 2.0% (another 172,000 citizens). This is similar to the rate of increase of the past decade. Only during the 90’s, with the great aliya from Russia, did the population increase average 3% every year.