A new demographic study says that Israel’s Jewish population now stands at over 6.1 million and predicts that this growth trend would continue in the coming years. According to the survey by the end of 2010 the Jewish population in Israel totaled 6,122,000. At the same time, the country’s Arab population was 1,573,000.
Yaakov Faitelson of the Institute for Zionist Strategies who conducted the study also notes the increase in the number of Jewish immigrants (olim) to Israel in 2010. More than 19,000 new immigrants made aliyah last year, up by 16 percent from 2009 and by 39 percent from 2008. The largest percentage of immigrants came from the former Soviet Union countries (7,300), followed by North America (3,980). The highest growth rate in immigration to Israel in 2010 was from Venezuela (280 percent more than in 2009), followed by Belgium (63 percent) and India (60 percent).
The study also says that natural population growth among Jews had been 80 percent in the last 15 years – more than among Arab Israelis. This refutes predictions that Israel's Muslim population would eventually outnumber the Jews due to higher birth rates and change the nature of the Jewish state.
