Israel’s population grew by 160,000 (a growth of 1.7%) in 2021, reaching 9,450,000 people as it enters 2022, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) announced on Thursday.
As of the end of 2021, 6.98 million (73.9%) of Israel’s residents were Jewish, about two million were Arab, and 472,000 were from other sectors, including non-Arab Christians and residents not classified by religion in the population registry.
Most of the population growth in the country this year was natural (83%), while the rest (17%) came from immigration.
About 25,000 olim arrived in 2021, 5,000 more than last year, with 30% of the new immigrants coming from Russia, 14.6% from France, 13.9% from the US, and 12.4% from Ukraine. An additional 9,000 migrants entered the country as well this year.
There were 22,700 immigrants arriving in Israel from January to November, a 28.8% rise compared with the same period last year.
Approximately 184,000 babies were born in Israel in 2021 – 73.8% to Jewish mothers, 23.4% to Muslim mothers, and 2.8% to other mothers from other sectors; 51,000 Israelis died this year; and 7,500 Israelis had moved out of the country for more than a year as of December 30.
The number of deaths this year was higher than previous years, and even higher than 2020, when 47,788 Israelis died amid the COVID-19 outbreak.