In 2023, there were 179,400 Christians living in Israel. Christians of Arabic ethnic background accounted for the majority, with 141,800 individuals. Non-Arab Christians comprised 37,600 people in the country.
At the end of 2023, the population of Israel reached almost 9.7 million permanent residents. Jewish residents formed the largest religious group, with just over 7.15 million people. The Muslim population in the country, formed the largest religious minority at over 1.7 million individuals. Conversely, the smallest religious group was that of the Druze with about 151,000 people.
In 2023, Haifa was the city with the largest population of Christians in Israel, with 22,200 residents who identify with the faith. The town with the second-highest number of Christians was Nazareth, with 19,800 members of the religion. Christians living in Jerusalem and the Northern town of Nof HaGalil also made up a sizeable portion of the community.
In 2023, the population of Christians in Israel was estimated at 180,500. This marked a slight increase compared to the previous year. The Christian population in the country is composed of both Arabs and non-Arab immigrants.
In 2023, the Jewish population had the highest total fertility rate in Israel, at an average of 3 births per woman. Muslim women, on the other hand, had a rate of 2.81 children. The Druze and Christian religious communities had a total fertility rate of 1.75 and 1.64, respectively.
As of 2023, the youngest population group by religion in Israel were Muslims, with a median age of 24 years. On the other hand, the religious group was that of Christians of Arab ethnicity, at 35 years. The median age among Jews, the most populous group in the country, was 31.6.
The number of households registered as Jewish in Israel reached roughly 2.36 million in 2023. In the same year, 469,300 households were registered as Arab, while 93,700 households were registered as belonging to population groups of other religions.
In 2023, more than 65 percent of Muslim families in Israel led a traditional lifestyle, in terms of religious practice. Religious or very-religious families, which made up over 25 percent of the Muslim population. On the other hand, only 5.4 percent of Muslim families were secular.
According to a 2023 survey, over 43 percent of Jews in Israel were secular, while 11.3 identified as ultra-orthodox. On the other hand, less than ten percent of Muslims in Israel were non-religious, and almost 64 percent identified as religious.
Israel's population is aging steadily, with the median age projected to rise from ** years in 2020 to ** years by 2050. This demographic shift reflects global trends of increasing life expectancy and declining birth rates, though Israel maintained a relatively young population compared to many developed nations. The country's unique religious and cultural makeup contributed to regional variations in age distribution, presenting both opportunities and challenges for policymakers. Which region has the oldest population? As of 2023, over a ******* of Israelis were under the age of 14 years. The largest age group in the country being ************** and below. Interestingly, significant regional differences existed within the country when it came to age distribution and aging. While the median age in the Jerusalem district was below **, Tel Aviv was the oldest region with an average age of over ** years, highlighting significant demographic variations across different areas. How does religion influence demographics? Religious affiliation played a role in Israel's age structure and demographics. Muslims are the youngest religious group with a median age of ** years, while Christians of Arab ethnicity are the oldest, at ** years. Jews, the largest religious-ethnic group, had a median age of almost ** years, but within the Jewish demographic, age and fertility varied greatly between people based on religiosity. These differences play a significant role in the country's population and future growth patterns.
In 2023, Jerusalem was the city with the largest population of Muslim residents in Israel, reaching ******* people. This represented about ** percent of the city's total population. The town with the second-highest number of Muslims was Rahat, with ****** members of the religion. Rahat is a predominantly Bedouin city in southern Israel. Umm al-Fahm and Nazareth, both located in northern Israel, make up a sizeable portion of the Muslim community in Israel.
Jews were more likely to engage in online shopping in Israel than Arabs, according to a 2023 survey. Among Jewish adults, ** percent made an e-commerce purchase in the previous three months. This figure decreased to **** among Arab respondents. More generally, about **** of the population were engaged in e-commerce consumption.
The two countries with the greatest shares of the world's Jewish population are the United States and Israel. The United States had been a hub of Jewish immigration since the nineteenth century, as Jewish people sought to escape persecution in Europe by emigrating across the Atlantic. The Jewish population in the U.S. is largely congregated in major urban areas, such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, with the New York metropolitan area being the city with the second largest Jewish population worldwide, after Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel is the world's only officially Jewish state, having been founded in 1948 following the first Arab-Israeli War. While Jews had been emigrating to the holy lands since the nineteenth century, when they were controlled by the Ottoman Empire, immigration increased rapidly following the establishment of the state of Israel. Jewish communities in Eastern Europe who had survived the Holocaust saw Israel as a haven from persecution, while the state encouraged immigration from Jewish communities in other regions, notably the Middle East & North Africa. Smaller Jewish communities remain in Europe in countries such as France, the UK, and Germany, and in other countries which were hotspots for Jewish migration in the twentieth century, such as Canada and Argentina.
The world's Jewish population has had a complex and tumultuous history over the past millennia, regularly dealing with persecution, pogroms, and even genocide. The legacy of expulsion and persecution of Jews, including bans on land ownership, meant that Jewish communities disproportionately lived in urban areas, working as artisans or traders, and often lived in their own settlements separate to the rest of the urban population. This separation contributed to the impression that events such as pandemics, famines, or economic shocks did not affect Jews as much as other populations, and such factors came to form the basis of the mistrust and stereotypes of wealth (characterized as greed) that have made up anti-Semitic rhetoric for centuries. Development since the Middle Ages The concentration of Jewish populations across the world has shifted across different centuries. In the Middle Ages, the largest Jewish populations were found in Palestine and the wider Levant region, with other sizeable populations in present-day France, Italy, and Spain. Later, however, the Jewish disapora became increasingly concentrated in Eastern Europe after waves of pogroms in the west saw Jewish communities move eastward. Poland in particular was often considered a refuge for Jews from the late-Middle Ages until the 18th century, when it was then partitioned between Austria, Prussia, and Russia, and persecution increased. Push factors such as major pogroms in the Russian Empire in the 19th century and growing oppression in the west during the interwar period then saw many Jews migrate to the United States in search of opportunity.
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In 2023, there were 179,400 Christians living in Israel. Christians of Arabic ethnic background accounted for the majority, with 141,800 individuals. Non-Arab Christians comprised 37,600 people in the country.