On eve of 2011, Israel’s population reaches 7.7 million

75.4 percent of Israeli are Jews, 20.4% are Arab; 16,000 immigrated to Israel in 2010; 28% of population under age of 14.

By RUTH EGLASH
baby in cot 311 (photo credit: Illustrative photo)
baby in cot 311
(photo credit: Illustrative photo)
The country’s population now stands at 7,695,000, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics, ahead of the start of the new civil year on Saturday.
Israel’s Jews now number some 5,802,000 or 75.4 percent of the total. Arabs are 20.4% of the population, or 1,573,000 people, and the remaining 320,000, or 4.2%, are not registered as either by the Interior Ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority.
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Overall, the numbers show a steady growth rate of 1.9%, or a net increase of 143,000 people, over the past year – a rise that has been consistent since 2003 and reflects a growth rate similar to that of the 1980s, before the mass aliya from the former Soviet Union during the 1990s.
Most of the growth (88%) was the result of natural increase – births offset by deaths. Other new arrivals included immigrants (19,000) and the foreignborn children of returning Israelis (6,000). An additional 4,000 people came to Israel under a special government program that unites non-Jewish relatives with their families here.
According to CBS statistics released three months ago, Israel is still a fairly young country, with 28% of its population under the age of 14, compared to 17% in most other Western countries.
Only 10% of the population is over 65, while in other Western countries, that average is closer to 15%.
The average Jewish family still hovers at between 2.8 and 2.9 children. In the Muslim community, the average number of children per mother is 3.73, and among Christians, it’s 2.1.
The majority of the Jewish population is concentrated in Jerusalem or the Center of the country, including Tel Aviv, and 60% of the Arab population lives in the North.
In fact, the CBS data show that while one-fifth of the general population lives in the North, only half of those people are Jewish. In the South, the split falls in the opposite direction, with only 11% of the population there being Arabs, mostly Beduin.