And He brought him forth abroad, and said: ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if thou be able to count them’; and He said unto him: ‘So shall thy seed be.’ (Genesis 15:5)

According to a report released by the Israeli Center for Statistics on Monday, the Israeli population has exceeded 8 million people. The report also notes that three-quarters of the population is Jewish, The Times of Israel reported.

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year, which begins on Wednesday evening — the state’s population numbers 8,081,000 citizens, a growth of some 142,000 since the previous Rosh Hashanah, representing a normal population growth of 1.8 percent.

Of Israel’s total population, 6,066,000 are Jewish, a full 75.1 percent. Israeli Arab citizens, Muslim, Christian, Druze and Bedouin alike, number 1,670,000, or 20.7% of the population. There are a further 345,000 citizens (4.2% of the population) who are Christians but not Arabs, belong to other religions or declined to state their religion to the Interior Ministry. The report noted that the results do not include some 202,000 non-citizens who are registered to live in Israel.

During the year, approximately 163,000 new babies were born, around 40,000 deaths were recorded, and around 19,000 people immigrated to the country, although according to statistics released by the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, only 16,500 new immigrants were absorbed in 5773.

About 65,000 marriages were recorded over the last year, according to the Interior Ministry, and 15,000 couples registered for divorce.

Israeli citizens registered almost 4.5 million departures from the country, and more than 5 million foreign nationals visited Israel over the last year, according to the Population, Immigration and Border Authority.