As of now, Israel's population is 6.6 million, up 2.1% from a year ago. The rate of growth in the Jewish population has slowed greatly, due to the sharp drop in the number of new immigrants. Arabs make up a fifth of the population. 230,000 people, 3.5% of the population, do not define themselves as Jews, although they immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return.
The Statistical Abstract of Israel 2002 (the figures apply to 2001), was published today.
Israel’s population is older, more educated, and wealthier than before. More people are living outside the nuclear family. 40% of eligible Israeli men and 43% of women are single, divorced, or widowed. The number of single parent families is rising; Israel has 95,100 single parent families with at least one child, amounting to 11% of all families in Israel. 23% of all families from the former Soviet Union are single parent families.
Immigrants from the former Soviet Union constitute 16% of all families in Israel.
The Jewish population in Israel continues to age rapidly, with 12% of all adults aged 65+. The Muslim population is younger, with only 3% of adults over 65. There are more males than females up to age 31; there are more females aged 32+.
62% of Israeli children are native born, and 32% are third generation. Ashkenazi Jews are the largest ethnic group, making up 41% of the Jewish population, owing to the large-scale immigration from the former Soviet Union. Sephardic Jews from North Africa are currently only 16% of the Jewish population.
Israel is one of the most densely population Western countries, with 294 persons per sq.km. The number of Jews moving to the West Bank and Gaza fell for the first time since 1967, owing to the security situation, although the balance of Israeli Jewish immigration to these settlements was still positive.
In 2001, Ashkelon joined the list of Israeli cities with 100,000 or more residents. With 670,000 residents, Jerusalem is Israel's largest city, and also has the most rapid growth rate, due to its rapidly growing Arab population. Tel Aviv-Jaffa had 359,000 residents, and Haifa had 272,000.
27% of native born Israelis prefer to live in the central region, and another 22% live in Tel Aviv. While immigration to Israel has slowed since the 1990s, the number of those emigrating from Israel has remained constant at 20,000 per year. Only 7,000 of these return to Israel after an overseas stay of at least one year. Most Israelis who have emigrated and then return to Israel do so after many years.
The marriage age continued its slow rise, while Jewish divorce rates remained constant (the figures are from two years ago). 29,676 Jewish couples, 7,612 Muslim couples and 1,600 Christian and Druze couples married in Israel in 2000. The median marriage age was 26.7 for Jewish men and 24.4 for Jewish women. 10,723 couples divorced in 2000, including 9,693 Jews and only 922 Muslims. 9% of Jewish marriages end in divorce within five years, compared with the same number in nine years in the 1970s.
There were 136,600 births in Israel in 2001, including 91,200 Jews and 36,300 Muslims. The number of births was 0.5% higher than in 2000. The fertility rate in Israel declined slightly to 2.89 children per woman. Women already having three or more children accounted for 25% of births in Israel.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on September 3, 2002