On the occasion of Migrant Day, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) published a list of facts and figures about immigration to the Jewish State. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, in 1948, about 3.3 million immigrants have arrived, 43.7% of whom immigrated after 1990.
In 2018, 37.2 thousand new immigrants arrived in Israel: 28.1 thousand immigrants and potential immigrants, 3.5 thousand returning Israelis, 4 thousand in family unification, and 1.6 thousand via new registration.
During the first ten months of 2019 (January-October), 27.3 thousand immigrants arrived in Israel, an increase of 20% compared to the same period last year.
At the end of 2018, there were 106,200 foreign nationals who entered Israel beginning in 2003 with a work permit and have not yet left the country.
At the end of 2018, the number of tourists who remained in the country beyond the expiration of their visa (probably for work purposes) reached about 58,000.
Over the years, there has been an increase in the size of the household of immigrants from the 1990s onwards, from an average of 2.83 persons per household in 2000, to 2.94 in 2018.
In 7.9% of immigrant households in the 1990s, families lived with people who were not part of the nuclear family, or even with two or more families, twice the rate of all the remaining Jewish households, which was 3.7%.
Among immigrant families from the 1990s onwards, the proportion of couples with children (of any age) was small (54%) compared with all the Jewish families (58%). In contrast, the proportion of single-parent families (14%) and families of couples without children (31%) was slightly higher than that of all the Jewish families (13% and 28%, respectively).
About half of Israelis who went abroad in the years 1990-2017 and did not return to Israel arrived as immigrants in the 1990s and onwards.
The reading level in Hebrew of almost a third (30%) of immigrants is weak to non-existing, while 35% are weak in writing Hebrew or are unable to write at all in Hebrew.
Most immigrants are generally satisfied with their lives (85%).
Which shows you don’t have to know reading and writing Hebrew to be happy…