Israel Passes 10 Million, but 28,000 More Left Than Arrived

Israel's population stood at an estimated 10.15 million people, according to figures the Central Bureau of Statistics released on the Wednesday before Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, which began the following Monday at sundown. The bureau is the Israeli government's official statistics agency, and it publishes a population snapshot each year to coincide with the holiday.

Of that total, Jews and others accounted for roughly 7.76 million residents, or 78.5 per cent, while Arabs numbered about 2.13 million, or 21.5 per cent, the bureau said. A further 260,000 foreign citizens were living in the country, which put the number of Israeli citizens at just under 9.89 million.

The number that changed: growth of 1 per cent

Over the past Hebrew year the population grew by about 101,000 people, a rate of 1 per cent. The bureau set that against a rate of 1.2 per cent in 2014 and 2 per cent in 2013. The Times of Israel, reporting on the same release in September 2025, described the figures as confirming a several-year trend of slowing growth rather than a one-year dip.

That reading is consistent with independent research. The Taub Center for Social Policy Studies, in its State of the Nation Report for 2025, put the growth rate for the 2025 calendar year at 0.9 per cent and said it was the first time since the state's founding that the figure had fallen below 1 per cent.

Why the migration balance matters more than it used to

The statistics bureau attributed the slowdown to two things: a change in how departing and returning Israelis are counted, and a negative migration balance. Roughly 28,000 more Israelis left the country than arrived as immigrants. Against that, about 25,000 new immigrants arrived, 5,000 of them through family reunification, and some 21,000 Israelis came home after living abroad.

For most of Israel's history the migration ledger ran the other way. Researchers at Tel Aviv University who analysed travel records found that between 45,000 and 50,000 Israelis left for stays of at least a year in each of 2023, 2024 and 2025, three consecutive record years, as reported in August 2026. The Taub Center likewise reported that departures exceeded arrivals in 2024, and projected a wider gap again for 2025.

Births still do the heavy lifting

Natural increase remained the main engine of growth. About 179,000 babies were born over the year and roughly 50,000 people died. Among adult deaths, nearly 24 per cent were caused by cancer and 12 per cent by heart disease. Life expectancy stood at 81.4 years for men and 85.5 for women.

The bureau put the average number of children per woman at 2.87. That is an outlier among rich countries: figures reported in June 2024 showed Israel at the top of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development at about 2.9 children per woman, against an OECD average of 1.5 and 1.8 for the next-placed members, Mexico and France.

How Israelis said they live

The release also covered social and household life. Among Jewish adults, 42.7 per cent identified as secular, 33.5 per cent as traditional and mostly not strongly religious, 12 per cent as religious and 11.4 per cent as Orthodox. More than 48,000 couples married during the year and roughly 15,000 divorced.

Some 62.7 per cent of Israelis lived in a home they owned, though only about a third had finished paying off the mortgage. Average monthly household spending came to roughly 17,600 shekels, which the release gave as about $4,700, with housing, transport and food taking the largest shares. Ninety-eight per cent of households had at least one mobile phone and 77 per cent had a computer.

Asked about their lives, more than 91 per cent reported being satisfied (92.4 per cent among Jews and 85.5 per cent among Arabs) and about half expected their economic situation to improve in the coming years.

What the figures do not settle

The release did not explain what the change in counting departing and returning Israelis involved, or how much of the drop in the growth rate it accounts for on its own. It did not break the emigration figure down by age, education or destination, so it says nothing about who is leaving. Nor did it give a projection for the year ahead.