In 1995, Israel had a Jewish population of approximately 4.5 million people, of whom approximately 1.75 million were born abroad. Over one million of these immigrants were born in Europe, with over 650,000 of these born in the former Soviet Union. Despite Poland having the largest Jewish population in the world in the pre-WWII years, the number of Polish Jewish migrants and descendents in Israel was relatively small in 1995 when compared to the USSR due to the impact of the Holocaust.

Outside of Europe, Morocco had the largest number of Jewish immigrants and descendents in Israel by 1995. Morocco had the largest Jewish population in the Muslim world when Israel was founded in 1948, with over 250,000 people. Many Moroccan Jews sought to emigrate to Israel at this time, but often faced resistance from authorities and local populations who believed the Jews would join in the fight against the Arab forces seeking to establish a Muslim state in Palestine. The government of Morocco then officially prohibited emigration to Israel after gaining independence from France in 1956, however this policy was reversed in 1961 whereby the Moroccan government began facilitating Jewish emigration to Israel in return for payments from Jewish organizations in the U.S. and Israel. By the 1970s, Morocco's Jewish population had fallen to less than 15 percent of its size in 1948.

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.

Jews were the dominant religious group in the Israel-Palestine region at the beginning of the first millennia CE, and are the dominant religious group there today, however, there was a period of almost 2,000 years where most of the world's Jews were displaced from their spiritual homeland. Antiquity to the 20th century Jewish hegemony in the region began changing after a series of revolts against Roman rule led to mass expulsions and emigration. Roman control saw severe persecution of Jewish and Christian populations, but this changed when the Byzantine Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion in the 4th century. Christianity then dominated until the 7th century, when the Rashidun Caliphate (the first to succeed Muhammad) took control of the Levant. Control of region split between Christians and Muslims intermittently between the 11th and 13th centuries during the Crusades, although the population remained overwhelmingly Muslim. Zionism until today Through the Paris Peace Conference, the British took control of Palestine in 1920. The Jewish population began growing through the Zionist Movement after the 1880s, which sought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Rising anti-Semitism in Europe accelerated this in the interwar period, and in the aftermath of the Holocaust, many European Jews chose to leave the continent. The United Nations tried facilitating the foundation of separate Jewish and Arab states, yet neither side was willing to concede territory, leading to a civil war and a joint invasion from seven Arab states. Yet the Jews maintained control of their territory and took large parts of the proposed Arab territory, forming the Jewish-majority state of Israel in 1948, and acheiving a ceasefire the following year. Over 750,000 Palestinians were displaced as a result of this conflict, while most Jews from the Arab eventually fled to Israel. Since this time, Israel has become one of the richest and advanced countries in the world, however, Palestine has been under Israeli military occupation since the 1960s and there are large disparities in living standards between the two regions.

As of 2024, the population of Israel reached about *** million permanent residents in total. About *** million were registered as Jews or other non-Arab populations. Furthermore, some *** million Arabs lived in the country.

As of January 2024, Jewish Israelis rated their feelings of empathy towards Arabs at **** on a scale of ***. This represented the lowest level of empathy measured during the observed period. In the same January survey, Arab Israelis measured their empathy towards Jews at ***. In the period between March 2023 and January 2024, empathy trends between Jews and Arabs diverged. Following the Israel-Hamas war, which started on October 7, 2023, ethnic relations between Arabs and Jews in the country came under strain.

​ “Middle East” LanguagesIndependent StudyFebruary 16, 2012Amanda DoyleCo-authors: Kevin Ragborg, Marc Puricelli, and Maria LindellDespite the relatively small geographical size of the “Middle East,” there is great diversity of the spoken languages within the region. The most common spoken language of the “Middle East” is Arabic, a Semitic language closely related to Hebrew that was developed beginning in the 8th century BC. Currently, around 280 million people speak Arabic in the regions of the “Middle East” and North Africa encompassing the countries between Morocco to Iraq. The Qur’an, the central religious text of Islam, is only allowed to be written in Arabic, giving the language a very important role in the Muslim world. Different from some other languages, there are many different dialects of Arabic, which can make it difficult for speakers from different areas of the Arabic speaking world to understand one another3. The next major language of the Middle East is Persian or Farsi, the national language of Iran. Persian is spoken by an estimated 65 million people, most of which are concentrated in Iran but there are significant Persian speaking populations in Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates. Younger than Arabic, Persian was developed around 400 BC and is closely related to Hindi and Urdu. There are three main dialects of Persian: Iranian Persian (spoken in Iran), Dari Persian (spoken in Afghanistan) and Tajik Persian (spoken in Tajikistan.) 4Hebrew is spoken by roughly 3.8 million people in the “Middle East,” but this population is now concentrated in Israel and the neighboring countries. Though, not all Jews, even Israeli Jews, speak Hebrew since centuries ago, Hebrew ceased being a working language; however, due to Jewish nationalism, the Zionist movement, and the need for a unifying language between immigrants into Israel the language has been revived. Turkish, the national language of Turkey and the main spoken language of the Turkish nation is also spoken by roughly 170,000 people in Cyprus and by minorities in the Fertile Crescent area. Kurdish is the language that unifies the Kurds, a nation that spans a large geographical range from Beirut to Afghanistan. Additionally, almost all countries in the “Middle East” have several minority languages, such as Berber, spoken by many North Africans, including some parts of northwestern Egypt. Azeri, a minority Turkic language, is often spoken in northwestern Iran. Turkish tribes in the southern Zagros Mountains in Iran speak Qashqai, while Baluchi is spoken in southeastern and eastern Iran by the Baluch peoples and migrants in United Arab Emirates and Oman. Nomadic tribes in the Zagros Mountains can be found speaking Luri. Lastly, Armenian, due to its historical significance is spoken by minorities in urban centers such as Beirut, Damascus, Aleppo, Tehran, and Cairo1.Works Cited (1) Held, Colbert C. Middle East Patterns – Places, Peoples and Politics. 2nd ed. Westview Press, Inc.: Boulder, Co, 1994, pgs. 76-80.(2) The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 2011. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2098.html?countryName=Jordan&countryCode=jo&regionCode=me&#jo.(3) "Learn Arabic - All About the Arabic Language." Innovative Language Learning. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. http://innovativelanguage.com/languagelearning/arabic-language.(4) UCLA, Language Materials Projects. "Persian Language." Iran Chamber Society. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://www.iranchamber.com/literature/articles/persian_language.php.

ObjectiveDiabetes mellitus is an emerging epidemic in the Arab world. Although high diabetes prevalence is documented in Israeli Arabs, information from cohort studies is scant.MethodsThis is a population study, based on information derived between 2007–2011, from the electronic database of the largest health fund in Israel, among Arabs and Jews. Prevalence, 4-year-incidence and diabetes hazard ratios [HRs], adjusted for sex and the metabolic-syndrome [MetS]-components, were determined in 3 age groups (

As of January 2024, Jews in Israel rated their fear of Arabs at 3.86 on a scale of six. On the other hand, Arab Israelis ranked their fear of Jews at 1.76. In the period between March and October 2023, the self-reported feeling of fear among Jews towards Arabs increased by 25 percent. In the same period, Arabs' reported feeling of fear towards Jews increased by about four percent. Following the Israel-Hamas war, which started on October 7, 2023, ethnic relations between Arabs and Jews in the country came under strain.

The data reported here are from the 2000 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, detailing the views of American Jews about a broad range of subjects. Among the topics covered in the present survey are the Israel-Arab peace process, the attachment of American Jews to Israel, political and social issues in the United States, Jewish perceptions of anti-Semitism, Jewish opinion about various countries, and Jewish identity concerns. Some of the questions appearing in the survey are new; others are drawn from previous American Jewish Committee surveys, including the 1997, 1998, and 1999 Annual Surveys of American Jewish Opinion. The 2000 survey was conducted for the American Jewish Committee by Market Facts, Inc., a leading survey-research organization. Respondents were interviewed by telephone during September 14-28, 2000; no interviewing took place on the Sabbath. The sample consisted of 1,010 self-identified Jewish respondents selected from the Market Facts consumer mail panel. The respondents are demographically representative of the United States adult Jewish population on a variety of measures. (AJC 3/4/2015).

Please Note: This dataset is part of the historical CISER Data Archive Collection and is also available at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at https://doi.org/10.25940/ROPER-31094161. We highly recommend using the Roper Center version as they may make this dataset available in multiple data formats in the future.

Among the topics covered in the present survey are the consequences of the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States, the Israel-Arab peace process, the attachment of American Jews to Israel, political and social issues in the United States, Jewish perceptions of anti-Semitism, Jewish opinion about various countries, and Jewish identity concerns. Some of the questions appearing in the survey are new; others are drawn from previous American Jewish Committee surveys, including the Annual Surveys of American Jewish Opinion carried out in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. The 2001 survey was conducted for the American Jewish Committee by Market Facts, Inc., a leading survey-research organization. Respondents were interviewed by telephone during November 19 - December 4, 2001; no interviewing took place on the Sabbath. The sample consisted of 1,015 self-identified Jewish respondents selected from the Market Facts consumer mail panel. The respondents are demographically representative of the United States adult Jewish population on a variety of measures. (AJC 3/4/2015)

Please Note: This dataset is part of the historical CISER Data Archive Collection and is also available at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at https://doi.org/10.25940/ROPER-31094162. We highly recommend using the Roper Center version as they may make this dataset available in multiple data formats in the future.

As of 2024, the share of Jewish citizens in Israel who prefer to remain in the country rather than emigrate, decreased to **** percent. This represents the lowest level in the observed period. Furthermore, ** percent of Arab citizens said they preferred to live in the country. This was a significant increase compared to the previous year. Following the Israel-Hamas war, which started on October 7th, 2023, the topic of emigration became more prominent.

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 2022, **** percent of the Arab population in Israel lived in a home they owned. while ** percent of the Jewish population in the country lived in a self-owned home, while just over ** percent of all other people lived in a home of their own.

In a survey conducted in Israel in 2021, 57 percent of Jewish respondents stated that they saw India as a friendly country. The same share of Arab respondents found India to be a friendly state to Israel. India was the only country in the survey labeled as favorable at the same rate by both population groups.