Israel's population closing in on 10 million in 2024 demographic update

An update last week from the online encyclopedia Jewish Virtual Library (JVL) showed that Israel's population stood at about 9,842,000.

The JVL update stated that the Israeli population grew by 1.9% throughout 2023 - a decrease from the previous year due to lower immigration. Furthermore, the update states that the overall population will reach 10 million by the end of 2024.

Regarding the Jewish and Arab populations, the former at the end of last year was 7.2 million, or 73.2% of the overall population. The Arab population constitutes 21.1% of the entire population and comes up to nearly 2.1 million. The population by religion saw that 18% of the country was Muslim, 2% Christian, and 2% Druze.

Approximately 213,000 people in Israel are foreign workers. Not including the foreign workers and migrants in Israel, the Jewish state is the 100th most populous country in the world.

Holding nearly half the world's Jewish population

Furthermore, Israel holds nearly half the world's Jewish population, with 47% of all Jews living in Israel. Within this Jewish population, among those over the age of 20, 44% of Jews self-identify as secular, 33% traditional, 12% religious, and 11% ultra-Orthodox.

Nearly 148 thousand Holocaust survivors are living in Israel as of the end of last year. 60% of them are women, the youngest survivors being 76 years old, and the majority of the older survivors over the age of 90. More than 100 Israeli Holocaust survivors passed the age of 100.

However, one in three survivors lives under the poverty line, according to the JVL.

Israel welcomed 45,000 new immigrants, the JVL update said, most of them coming from Russia and Ukraine, whereas 2,500 Israelis emigrated to other countries.