Israeli Population Passes Nine Million

Israel’s population crossed the nine million mark for the first time, according to pre-Independence Day figures published on Monday by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The population now stands at 9,021,000, the CBS said. That reflects a growth of 177,000 (an increase of 2 percent) since last year. During that period, 188,000 babies were born, 47,000 people died and 31,000 immigrants arrived in the country.

According to the official data, 6,697,000 Israelis are Jewish (74.2 percent) and 1,890,000 are Arab (20.9 percent). In addition, there are 434,000 people who are non-Arab Christians or members of other ethnic groups. Seventy-five percent of the Jews in Israel were born in the country.

Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, 3.2 million immigrants have moved to Israel, with around 43 percent of them arriving after 1990.

Approximately 45 percent of world Jewry now lives in Israel.