JERUSALEM — The slowdown in the Arab birth rate, together with continued immigration and high birth rates in certain Jewish sectors, signify that Jews will remain the majority in Israel for the foreseeable future, Government Statistician Joseph Yahav said Monday.
In a speech marking the official publication of the 1997 State Statistical Abstract, Yahav said the country’s Jewish majority is guaranteed for at least 20 years.
On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, Israel’s population totals 5,863,000, of whom 80.2 percent (4.7 million) are Jews, with 14.9 percent Moslems, 3.2 percent Christians and 1.7 percent Druze. During 1996, the population increased by 140,000 (2.3 percent), of whom 88,000 were Jews. This compares to peak annual growth of 250,000 in both 1990 and 1991.
The growth rate far exceeds those of European and North American countries, where the population increases by an average 0.5 percent to 1 percent every year. Latin America and Asia average a 1.7 percent increase.
Israel’s population increase is lower than in most neighboring countries.
The Israeli population has grown 26.3 percent since January 1990, with the Jewish population growing 1.9 percent last year and the number of Muslims increasing 3.5 percent.
“This is a much lower level than it was say 10 to 15 years ago,” said Yahav, referring to the rate of growth of the Arab population. “It is steadily getting closer to the levels of increase among Jews.”
Natural population growth (births against deaths) contributed 62 percent to the overall increase, with a 60.5 percent rise among Jews. The remainder was the result of migrations. In the early 1990s this accounted for 72 percent of the increase.
Some 71,000 new immigrants arrived in Israel during 1996, of whom 59,000 came from former Soviet states. The number of immigrants, which has been declining since a 1991 peak, was 5,000 fewer than in 1995. An additional 4,400 children of Israeli citizens living abroad moved back to the country last year.
Of all Jewish Israelis, 61.6 percent were born here. Some 40.2 percent of the population is of European-American descent, in comparison to 36 percent in 1989. The number of citizens originating in the former Soviet Union rose 3 percent to 845,000 and this now forms the largest single group in Israel, double its size in 1989.
Yahav said he is worried by the slow but gradual aging of the population. By the end of 1996, 1.7 million people (29.4 percent of the total population), were aged 14 or under, with more than half a million (9.6 percent) aged 65 plus. In 1989 those aged under 15 formed 32.3 percent of the population, with the over-65ers registering 8.8 percent.
The number of children born in Israel rose 4 percent in 1996 over the previous year and totaled 121,300, representing 21.3 births per 1,000 people. The average woman can expect to have 2.9 children (2.6 percent among Jews), a figure that has remained the same through the 1990s. Jewish women accounted for 83,700 of births (69 percent).
Abortions have become far less frequent, decreasing from 18 per 1,000 women in 1980 to 13 per 1,000 last year. Some 17,500 abortions were performed in 1996.
There were 34,700 registered deaths last year, or 6.1 per 1,000 people.