In recognition of the Jewish New Year, the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics published their annual report a few days ago. It makes for some interesting reading, if stats on the population of Israel is your cup of tea. To sum it all up: Israel is growing steadily and its citizens are living longer, with more women than men, while many are leaving the big cities for greener pastures (they hope)…
Some of the more interesting facts from the 2009 report include the following:
- The population of Israel now totals 7,465,500 – 5,634,300 Jews, 1,513,200 Arabs and 318,000 others. The annual growth rate for Israel’s population is a steady 1.8%, as it has been for the last few years.
- Israeli men can expect to live just over 79 years, while Israeli women can expect an extra 4 years (83 years). If you’re a Jew in Israel you can expect to live 3.7 years longer than Israeli Arabs.
- Guys, be lucky. There are 979 men to every 1,000 women in Israel.
- The population of Israel is quite young compared with the West – the percentage of children between 0-14 in Israel is 28.4%, compared with the 17% average for Western countries. As for those aged 65 and up, the percentage was 9.7%, compared with the West’s 15%.
- Jewish guys and girls aren’t in a hurry to get married – some 32% of men and 42% of women between the ages of 25-29 haven’t yet tied the knot. The numbers for Israeli Muslims of the same age group makes for interesting reading: 39% for men and 15.5% for women.
- 50% of the Jewish population in Israel lives in central Israel; less than 10% of them have opted for the option of life up in the green and beautiful North. In contrast, 60% of the Arab population lives in the North.
- Israelis are deserting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem – the population of Jerusalem suffered a drop of 4,200 from the previous year, while in Tel Aviv some 5,700 Israelis left. Extremely expensive rent could be the reason behind these numbers…