As Israel prepares to celebrate its 70th birthday, the Central Bureau of Statistics revealed that 45% of Jews worldwide currently live in the Jewish state.
The Times of Israel reports that the 45% figure is a massive increase from when Israel was created, as only 6% of Jews worldwide lived in Israel at the time. Of the 14.5 million Jews worldwide, over 6.5 million Jews live in Israel today.
Jews consist of 74.5% of the Israeli population; Arabs constitute around 21% of the population and 4.5% are others. The census also found that the number of children produced by Jewish mothers had increased from 2.59 in 1996 to 3.06 in 2016, while on the Arab side that rate decreased from 4.35 to 3.11 over the same timeframe. Israel also has the largest fertility rate among Western countries at 3.11 children per women.
Over 8.8 million people reside in Israel as a whole, a marked increase from the 806,000 that populated Israel when it was first established. The population is expected to increase to 15.2 million in 2048.
Taken together, the numbers that in the 70 years since the inception of the Jewish state, Israel has evolved into a thriving, free nation that has established itself as the true homeland for the Jewish people amidst rising anti-Semitism in certain parts of the world.
“When Israel stands up to Syrian atrocities, it is acting out of a Judaic commitment to prevent the degradation of human beings made in God’s image; when Israel offers a road for European Jews on the verge of extinction, it is acting not merely out of solidarity but out of decency,” Journal columnist Ben Shapiro wrote. “Israel is a decent country, because it was founded on a decent purpose — and because it was founded on the basis of a tradition of decency.”
