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Israel’s population tops 10 million

Ahead of Jewish new year’s, Israel’s population estimated at just over 10 million, rising 118,000 over in 2023, with 183,000 new babies born.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

The population of Israel is estimated to have topped 10 million people this year, based on data released by the government bureau of statistics.

On Wednesday, the Central Bureau of Statistics published data on the population of Israel, ahead of the upcoming Rosh Hashanah holiday, marking the Jewish new year’s.

According to the report, at the end of 2023, Israel’s total population numbered 9,915,000, with an annual growth rate of 1.6%, down from 2.2% the year before.

Israel’s growth rate was fueled primarily by natural growth, with some 183,000 babies born in Israel during 2023, compared to approximately 46,000 total immigrants to Israel, and a net negative migration balance. Some 55,300 people emigrated from Israel in 2023, while 27,800 Israelis moved back.

A total of roughly 55,000 people died during 2023.

Based on Israel’s growth rate in 2023, the country is estimated to have topped 10 million earlier this year.

Broken down by demographic groups, 77.0% of Israel’s population was in the “Jewish and others” category at the end of 2023 with 7,632,000 people, compared to 20.8% in the Arab sector, with 2,067,000 people. In addition, Israel at the end of 2023 was home to 216,000 foreign nationals who do not carry Israeli citizenship.

By September 2024, the number of citizens had risen from less than 9.7 million to nearly 9.8 million, with the figure for the total number of residents rising to just over 10 million once foreign nationals are included.

Nearly half (43.5%) of Israeli Jews identified themselves religiously as “not-religious, secular,” compared to 11.3% who said they are ultra-Orthodox, 12.5% who categorized themselves as “religious,” 13.0% who defined themselves as “religious-traditional,” and 18.9% who described themselves as “traditional, not-so-religious.”

During 2023, 51,643 couples were married, while 15,196 couples got divorced.

There were a total of 2,920,300 households across Israel at the end of 2023, with an average of 3.19 people per household. Of those, 2,297,400 were defined as nuclear family households.