The numbers are in: What’s in store for Israel’s population?

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics has published its final demographic figures ahead of the upcoming Jewish new year.

According to the report, Israel currently has 9,593,000 residents, with that number expected to cross 10 million at the end of 2024 and 15 million at the end of 2048. Israel’s population will have essentially doubled by the end of 2065, the report says.

A breakdown of the population according to ethnicities shows that 7,069,000, or roughly 74%, are Jews, some 2 million (roughly 21%) are Arabs and about half a million residents (some 5%) have a different ethnic background.

Some 177,000 new Israelis were born in the Jewish year 5782 (which ends on Sunday night), while 53,000 people passed away, including 4,400 from complications of the coronavirus.

The war in Ukraine has impacted Israel’s overall immigration figures significantly. Net immigration for the past 12 months stands at 63,000, including 59,000 who qualify as olim, with about 40,000 of those making aliya from Ukraine.

On the eve of the Jewish new year, the number of Jews worldwide stands at approximately 15.3 million compared to 15.2 million in the previous year, according to newly released statistics from The Jewish Agency for Israel.

According to the Jewish Agency, approximately 8.25 million Jews live outside Israel (including approximately 6 million in the United States). Updated estimates, by professor Sergio Della Pergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, are to be published in the American Jewish Year Book 2022.

If those eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return are included, the global total rises to 25.5 million people, of which some 7.5 million are in Israel and 18 million outside of it, according to the Agency.

This is an edited version of an article that first appeared in Israel Hayom, republished by Jewish News Syndicate