With the Jewish year of 5776 just around the corner, the Central Bureau of Statistics has released its annual population statistics, which show that Israel's population has reached a record of about 8,412,000 people. According to the bureau, since Rosh Hashanah last year, the country's population has grown by 1.9%, or some 158,000 people. The Jewish population in Israel stands at about 6.3 million people, 74.9% of the general population. Since the establishment of the state, the number of Jews has grown 10-fold. Israel's Arab population is about 1,746,000 (20.7% of the population). Another group, mainly comprising those who immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return but are not recognized by the Chief Rabbinate as Jewish, stands at around 366,000, 4.4% of the general population. Over the past year, some 168,000 babies were born in Israel, an all-time high, while about 42,000 people died. There were 28,000 new immigrants, a 35% increase compared from the previous year. Most of the new immigrants arrived from Ukraine (26%), France (25%), Russia (21%) and the United States (9%). According to population forecasts, between the years 2025 and 2035 the number of people living in Israel is expected to surpass the 10 million mark, with the number of Jews expected to approach 7.5 million. The figures also show that 90% of the country's residents live in 76 cities, with the remainder residing in small towns, kibbutzim and moshavim. About a third of the population lives in the Gush Dan metropolis in central Israel, and around 7% lives in Haifa and its suburbs in the north.
