Just in time for Israeli Independence Day on Wednesday evening, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) announced on Sunday that the number of Israelis increased by 177,000 (two percent) since last year and currently stands at 9,021,000.
The report stated that 6,697,000 Israelis are Jewish (74.2 percent) and 1,890,000 are Arab (20.9%). 434,000 people are non-Arab Christians or members of other ethnic groups. Seventy-five percent of the Jews in Israel are native-born Sabras.
That number includes 188,000 births and 47,000 deaths. 31,000 Olim (immigrants) arrived this year as part of the prophetic Ingathering of the Exiles.
The CBS estimated that the population will grow to 15.2 million people by Israel’s 100th birthday in 2048.
In 1948 there were 806,000 people in Israel and at the time and the global Jewish population was 11.5 million, meaning that six percent of the world’s Jews lived in Israel. The total number of Jews in the world is currently estimated to be 14.5 million meaning that 45 percent of world Jewry lives in Israel.
The statistical achievement has a somber side. Before six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, the population of world Jewry stood at 16.5 million, or .8 percent of the world population. Jews currently represent less than .2 percent of the world population.
