Israel’s population stands at 7,797,400 people, according to a survey put out by the Central Bureau of Statistics. It has become a tradition for the bureau to report on the country’s demography in the run up to the Jewish New Year (which begins on September 28, 2011).
According to the survey, 5,874,300 people in Israel are Jewish, 1,600,100 Arabic and 323,000 of other ethnicities.
Some 217,000 foreign workers who reside in Israel were not included in the survey.
The statistics show a growth rate of 1.9 percent since 2010. According to the CBS, the Jewish population grew by 1.7%, the Arab population by 2.5% and other sectors by 1.7%.
It was a good year for Aliya, too. In 2010, some 16,633 immigrants came to Israel – a 14% increase in comparison to 2009. The majority of immigrants came from Russia (3,404), followed by the United States (2,530), France (1,775), Ukraine (1,752) and Ethiopia (1,655).
The report showed that in 2010, 166,255 babies were born in Israel — 3.2% more than in 2009. The average number of children per mother was 3.03.
And hearty congratulations to the 48,997 couples who got married in Israel in 2009. Of them, 37,165 were Jewish couples (76%) and 9,999 were Muslim (20%). Though there were also those who went the divorce route — 13,233 couples called it quits, of which 10,928 were Jewish (83%) and 1,393 Muslim (11%).