In the past year, the State of Israel has enlarged its population 1.9 percent, or 158,000 new citizens.
During this past year, 168,000 new Israelis were born and 42,000 died. In addition, 28,000 new olim arrived on aliyah – a 35 percent increase over last year.
The highest percent of new immigrants came from war-torn Ukraine (26 percent), closely followed by France (25 percent), where anti-Semitism is skyrocketing. Those populations were not far ahead of Russia, whose immigration statistic for the year was 21 percent. Immigration from the U.S. only reached nine percent.
Of the now 8.412 million people living in the State of Israel, 6.3 million – the vast majority (74.9 percent) – are Jews.
The next largest population (20.7 percent) in the country is comprised of Israeli Arabs, some 1.746 million people.
The rest (4.4 percent) – 366,000 – are a mix of residents who hail from various other ethnic groups and faiths.
It is believed by those who work in demographics in the Central Bureau of Statistics that Israel’s population will grow to 10 million sometime between 2025 and 2030.