The size of the electorate has multiplied by a factor of 11 since the election
for the first Knesset took place.
There are 5.1 million citizens with the
right to vote in Israel on January 22, according to figures released by the
Central Bureau for Statistics on Wednesday.
In 1949, there were 506,567
Israelis who had the right to vote in the election for the first
Knesset.
The size of the electorate nearly doubled by the election for
the second Knesset.
The size of the current electorate grew by 7 percent
– some 333,000 people – since the last election in 2009.
Of those with
the right to vote, 81% are Jewish, 15% are Arab (including Muslims, Christians
and Druse), and 4% are neither Jewish nor Arab.
Another 560,000 people
are listed as having the right to vote, but live abroad. In other words, only
89% of voters listed by the CBS live in Israel. There are 47,000 more voters
abroad than in the previous election.
The lowest voter turnout was in
2006, when 63.5% of the electorate went to the polls. In 1996, 79.3% of those
eligible voted, and before that, turnout was between 75% and 86.9%.