Population Closes In on 9 Million as Rosh Hashanah Approaches

YERUSHALAYIM
(Moshe Shai/Flash90, File)

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah 5778, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced that Israel’s population was 8,743,000. Of those, 6,523,000 were Jewish – a total of 74.6 percent of the population – while 1,824,000, or 20.9 percent, were Arabs (Druze, Muslims and Christians). “Others,” including non-Christian Arabs, members of other religions, and those who declared that they had no religion, numbered 396,000, or 4.5 percent of the population.

Some 172,000 new Israelis entered the world in 5777, the CBS said. A total of 42,172 Israelis passed away during the year. The average Israeli woman has 3.11 children – the highest number of any OECD country. The year also saw 23,770 new immigrants enter Israel, 57 percent of them from former Soviet Union countries, 17 percent from France, and 11 percent from the United States. Life expectancy for Israeli women was 84.2 years in 5777, while for men it was 80.7 years. 62,281 couples married during the year, while 22,644 divorced. Eighty-eighty percent of Israelis said they were satisfied with their lives in 5777.

According to the Population Registry, the most popular names for babies born in 5777 were Muhammad, Yosef/Yussuf, David, Daniel, Uri, Omar, Eitan, Ariel, Noam and Adam. Among Jews, the most popular names for new baby boys were (in order) Uri, David, Ariel, Noam, Eitan, Yosef, Itai, Daniel, Yonatan and Lavie. For baby girls, it was Tamar, Adele, Miriam, Sarah, Avigail, Noa, Shira, Talia, Yael and Leah.

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