Since last year, the population has grown by 142,000 or by 1.8%.
As Israel heads into the holiday season, an annual report by the Central Bureau of Statistics has estimated its population at 8.081 million.
According to the report released on Monday, the Jewish population in the country represents about 6.066 million people – 75.1 percent of the total population – and the Arab population represents 20.7%, the equivalent of some 1.670 million of Israel’s inhabitants.
The remaining 4.2% – approximately 345,000 people – are non-Arab Christians as well as people of other religions and those with no religious affiliation.
The CBS figures also showed that in the past year about 163,000 babies were born in Israel. The most common baby names were Noa, Shira, Tamar, Talia, and Yael for girls. The most popular of the boy names were Itai, Daniel, Ori, Yosef, and Noam.
Forty-thousand deaths were recorded.
In terms of aliya, approximately 22,988 new immigrants and returning residents arrived in the past 12 months, according to statistics provided by the Immigrant Absorption Ministry.
Some 17,484 of them will be celebrating the new year for the first time in the country on Wednesday.
Most of the olim came from countries in the former Soviet Union and the majority of returning residents came from Canada and the United States.
More than half of the immigrants and returning residents were between the ages of 20 and 44, with an equal gender distribution.
According to the Interior Ministry, 16,968 people were officially recorded as Israel’s newest immigrants in the year 5773.
An additional 19,000 people were also added to the population migration balance.
Since last year’s Rosh Hashana, Israel’s population grew by about 142,000 people, a growth rate of 1.8%.
Source: Jpost.com
