As Rosh Hashanah 5773 approaches, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reports there are 7,933,200 Israelis living in the country, including 5,798,600 Jews, 1,636,600 Arabs, and 318,000 people not classified by religion.

The natural growth among Jews in 20011 was 1.8%, as opposed to 2.4% among Arabs. The Israeli population is young compared to other Western nations, with the number of children under the age of 14 in 2011 registering at 28.2%, as compared to and OECD average of 18.5%.

The median age in 2011 was reported to be 29.5 as opposed to 27.6 in 2000, showing the nation is growing older.

There are 978 men for every 1,000 women. Until the age of 29, there are more men than women and this trend changes at age 30. Among the Jews, there is a growing trend to push off getting married. And as a result, more Jews are single from the ages of 25-29, 46.1% of females and 64.5% of males report that were still single at that age in 2010.

166,296 babies came into the world in 2011. Jewish women have an average of 2.98 children as opposed to 2.97 in 2010. Muslim women had an average of 3.51 children in 2011 as compared to 3.75 in 2010. Therefore women have an average of 3 children.

Life expectancy is up in the last decade, by 2.7 years for males and 2.4 years for females. The life expectancy for men in 2011 was 80 and for women 83.6.

A less known statistic is that one in six Israelis is registered for welfare and social assistance as are is half of the population over the age of 75 and half of the Ethiopian population nationwide.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)