Just in time for Christmas, the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics has released a report showing that two percent of Israeli citizens are Christian. About 80% of the 158,000 Christians in Israel are Israeli Arabs. The rest are Christians who immigrated to Israel with Jewish family members under the Law of Return, mainly from the former Soviet Union during the 1990s. Israeli cities with the largest Christian Arab populations are Nazareth (22,400), Haifa (14,400), Jerusalem (11,700) and Shfaram (9,400). In 2011, Christian women gave birth to 2,596 children, 78% of whom are Arab. Christian families have an average of 2.2 children, less than both their Jewish and Muslim compatriots (2.3 and 3.0 children, respectively). On high school matriculation exams, Christian students achieve better results than all other segments of the Israeli population. The unemployment rate among Christians ages 15 and over is 4.4%, less than the national average of 7%. The average marriage age is 29.3 for Christian men and 24.5 for Christian women.
