Israel's Population Reaches 8,462,000 By End of 2015

Jerusalem, 31 December, 2015 (TPS) -- Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released data on the country’s demographics for the year of 2015. According to the data, released on Thursday, December 31, Israel has a total population of approximately 8,462,000 people.

About 74.9% (6.3 million) of the country’s population is Jewish, 20.7% (1.7 million) are Arab and 4.4% (370,000) belong to other ethnic groups.

The CBS estimated that in the year of 2035, Israel’s population will reach 11,400,000.

Israel’s population grew by 2% in 2015, which is similar to the annual growth rate over the past decade. 176,000 new babies were born and 28,000 new immigrants arrived in Israel. The new immigrants primarily came from France (25% of all immigrants), Ukraine (24%), Russia (23%) and the United States (9%).

Israel’s net growth increased in spite of 7,200 residents leaving the country and 44,000 Israelis dying.

The data shows that Jewish and Arab fertility rates are even. The average Israeli Jewish woman is expected to give birth to 3.1 children, compared to 3.2 for the average Israeli Arab woman.

Arab fertility rates used to be much higher than the Jewish rates, and the current data shows this gap to have almost completely closed. In 1955, the Arab rate was 7.1 compared to 3.6, and in 1995 it was 4.2 compared to 2.6 for Jewish women.

According to CBS figures, Jerusalem is Israel’s most populated city with almost 850,000 residents. Tel Aviv is Israel’s second most populated city with 426,000 residents, followed by Haifa (277,000), Rishon LeZion (240,000), Petach Tikva (225,000) and Ashdod (218,000).