By JPOST.COM STAFF
On the eve of Israel's 60th Independence Day, the country's population numbers 7,282,000, according to figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
Some 5,499,000 of the population (75.5 percent) are Jews and 1,461,000 are Arabs (20.1%), while the remaining 322,000 (4.4%) are immigrants and their offspring who are not registered as Jews by the Interior Ministry.
According to the CBS statistics, since last Independence Day the country's population has risen by some 130,000, with most of this increase being attributed to natural growth. 156,400 news babies have been born and some 18,000 new immigrants have arrived.
When the state was established there were only 806,000 residents, the number reaching its first and second million on 1949 and 1958 respectively.
In 1990, the population hit five million and in 1998, after the wave of immigration for the former Soviet Union the population was numbered at six million. According to the CBS forecast, in 2030 the population is expected to reach 10 million.