While Muslims comprised 4.9% of Europe’s population in 2016, in 2017 they reached 17.8% of Israel’s population, with an annual growth rate of 2.5%. In honor of Eid al-Adha (the festival commemorating Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael—yes, we know, your recollection is different), Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics issued a report on the Israeli Muslim community in facts and figures:
By the end of 2017, the Muslim population in Israel reached 1,562,000, a growth of 38,000 compared with the end of 2016.
Jerusalem is home to the largest group of Israeli Muslims – 329,000, 21% of the country’s Muslims and 36.5% of Jerusalem’s residents.
The Muslim population is Israel is very young: 34.4% are children younger than 14, only 4% are 65 or older.
Muslim women are the most fertile in Israel: the average Muslim woman gives birth 3.37 children in her lifetime (up from 3.29 in 2016), compared with 3.16 children for a Jewish woman, 2.10 to a Druze, and 1.93 to a Christian.
Some 33% of the Arab households in Israel have 6 or more members, compared to only 10% of Jewish households.
Gainful employment is low in the Muslim community: in 2017 only 43.4% of Muslims ages 15 and up went to work – 61.5% of the men; 25.3% of the women.
But Israeli Muslims have been improving their high school education: in 2017, 62.4% of Muslims earned a high school matriculation diploma, compared with 66% in the Jewish community. In higher education, however, things are still slow: in 2017, 8.4% of all academic graduates were Muslim (7.7% in 2016).
Finally: only 47.2% of Muslim households enjoy Internet access in 2017, compared with 79.4% of Jewish households.
Here are the figures for the Muslim population in Europe, courtesy of Pew:
