Demography of Israel

Population of Israel since 1949
Population	8,855,000 (96th)
Density	401/km2 (35th)
Growth rate	2.0%
Birth rate	21.5 births/1,000 population (101st)
Death rate	5.2 deaths/1,000 population (174th)
Life expectancy	82.01 years (8th)
• male	80.02 years
• female	84.0 years
Fertility rate	3.13 children born/woman (76th)
Infant mortality rate	4.03 deaths/1,000 live births (25th)
0–14 years	27.3%
15–64 years	62.2%
65 and over	10.5%
Total	1.01 male(s)/female
At birth	1.05 male(s)/female
Under 15	1.05 male(s)/female
15–64 years	1.03 male(s)/female
65 and over	0.78 male(s)/female
Nationality	Israelis
Major ethnic	Jews
Minor ethnic	Arabs, Druze, Arameans, Armenians, Circassians
Official	Hebrew, Arabic
Spoken	English, Russian

The demographic features of Israel are monitored by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. The State of Israel has a population of approximately 8,855,000 inhabitants as of first half-2018. Some 74.5% percent are Jews of all backgrounds (about 6,556,000 individuals), 20.9% are Arab of any religion other than Jewish (about 1,837,000 individuals), while the remaining 4.6% (about 400,000 individuals) are defined as "others" including persons of Jewish ancestry deemed non-Jewish by religious law and persons of non-Jewish ancestry who are family members of Jewish immigrants (neither of which are registered at the Ministry of Interior as Jews), Christian non-Arabs, Muslim non-Arabs, and all other residents who have neither an ethnic nor religious classification.

Israel's annual population growth rate stood at 2.0% in 2015, more than three times faster than the OECD average of around 0.6%. With an average of three children per woman, Israel also has the highest fertility rate in the OECD by a considerable margin, and much higher than the OECD average of 1.7

Generally, population trends in Israel reflect distinct patterns of two sub-groups: Jews (around 74.71% of the population), and Arabs (20.7%). Over the past decade, the Muslim annual population growth has fallen significantly, from around 3% to less than 2.2% by 2013, while the overall Jewish growth rate rose from around 1.4% to 1.7%, primarily due to the expanding Orthodox Jewish sector.

The territory of Israel can be defined in a number of ways as a result of a complex and unresolved political situation (see table below). For example, whilst the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics defines the area of Israel to include the annexed East Jerusalem and Golan Heights, and to exclude the militarily controlled regions of the West Bank, the CBS defines the population of Israel to also include Israeli settlers living in the Area C of West Bank and the Muslim residents of East Jerusalem and Area C, who have Israeli residency or citizenship.