Israel Population Rises to 8.9 Million
The official population of Israel on the eve of Rosh Hashanah is 8.9 million.
The population grew 2 percent since the previous year, an increase of 173,811 to 8,904,373 , according to the Population and Immigration Authority, which released the figures on Sunday.
About 75 percent of the population is Jewish.
The number of babies born in Israel during the past year was 176,230, including 90,646 boys and 85,584 girls. Some 75,848 people married since Rosh Hashanah and the country registered 32,457 divorces. The number of new immigrants to Israel over the last year is 24,801.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting that the population figures are meaningful to the Jewish community some 70 years after the start of the Holocaust.
“More than six million Jews live here. This number has great significance in light of our people’s history in the previous century as well as in the current one,” he said.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30