Israel Population - Israeli People

In my Israel Population page I will give you a quick overview of some figures as they relate to the country’s demographics. Since this is my travel site and not some detailed government survey I will round the numbers a bit…



First figure is the population of Israel which stands on roughly 7.5 million. The population growth is about 2% annually. The age of the population is as follows:
0-14 years: 26%
15-64 years: 64%
Over 65 years: 10%

The sex ratio for the entire population is 0.99 male for 1 female. In other words for every 99 men there are 100 women. This is explained partially by the longer life expectancy of women 82 years compared to only 77 for men.

Among the Jewish population about 70% were born in Israel and are “Sabra” – this is how you call a native Israeli like myself for example. The two main Jewish Israeli ethnic groups used to be the Ashkenazim (European origin) and Sephardic (Middle Eastern/N. African origin) Jews and still are to a large degree. Although today the distinction is blurred by the mix and match of marriage between the above two groups. I am for example half Ashkenazi and half Sephardic as my mom was born in Iran and my dad (born in Israel) is of Ashkenazi origins.

The Israeli Arabs (distinct from the Palestinians) are easier to define by their religion: most of them – about 80% - are Sunni Muslim, roughly 10% are Christian and another 10% are Druze.

There are a few other minorities that spice up the Israel demographics such as the Armenians, Samaritan, Circassians and many nationalities of temporary foreign workers.

The Literacy of the population of Israel is very high – over 95% can read and write.