According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), since the establishment of the state, its population has grown tenfold, from 0.9 million in 1948 to 8.842 million on its 70th anniversary. The bureau predicts that in 2020 there will be 9.3 million Israelis, in 2050 15.7 million, and by 2065 a whopping 20 million Israelis.
Israeli’s current population includes 6.993 Jews and others, and 1.849 Arabs.
Here’s an amazing statistic: 40% of all the olim between 1948 and 2016 were born in the former Soviet Union.
Israel has experienced two major immigration waves: from 1948 until the mid-1950s the population doubled with the arrival of some 700,000 olim; the number of Israelis rose by 10% in the 1990s, with more than 900,000 olim.
The main countries from which olim have arrived in Israel over the past decades were: Russia, Ukraine, France, the US, Ethiopia, and the UK.
On Israel’s first Day of Independence its Jewish citizens constituted 6% of world Jewry; now they are 44%.
Since 1948 some 7 million children were born in Israel, their share in the population rising from 48% in the country’s first census of November 1948 – to 79% at the end of 2016.
In 2016, according to CBS, 44% of Israeli Jews are secular. The Haredim comprise 10% of the Jewish population, but are 17% among the age group 20-29.
44% of Israel’s population live in the 15 biggest cities (100,000 or more). The biggest Israeli city is Jerusalem, with 882,700 residents.