Israel celebrates 60, population count 7,282,000
Israel established with 873,000 inhabitants, numbers have been multiplied
eight times since then. Today Israel has a population of 7,282,000
Ynet Latest Update: 05.08.08, 06:56 / Israel News
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3540634,00.html

On the eve of Israel's Independence Day the country's population stands at
7,282,000 people and 75.5% are Jewish. These numbers were presented
Wednesday by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.

In the bureau's "60 years in a statistical mirror" booklet it was noted that
the Israeli population has increased from 873,000 people in November 1948 to
7.2 million at the beginning of 2008. According to the forecasts for 2030,
Israel will have a population of approximately 10 million people.

As of now, 5,499,000 are Jewish, of which 69% were born in Israel. 1,461,000
are Arab and 322,000 are considered "others".

As a result of the population growth, the population density has also grown
from 43 people to each square kilometer in 1948 to 310 people to each square
kilometer in 2006. The most crowded region is Tel Aviv with 7,000 people per
square kilometer as opposed to the least crowded region, the south with 72
people per square kilometer.

In 2006 the population was more spread out than it was in 1948. At the
country's inception the northern and southern regions combined contained 19%
of the population and by 2006 this number was increased to 31%. However,
parts of the population located in the Tel Aviv and central regions were
decreased throughout the years from 71% to 53%.

The Israeli population's educational level is on a constant incline. In
1948, 208 people who studied at the Hebrew University and at the Technion
received a university degree. In 2006 close to 53,000 people who studied at
62 different institutions for higher education received degrees.

Moreover, the statistics advertised by the bureau show that since the
establishment of the country, 57 million tourists have entered Israel.
Tourist entrances have increased from 47,000 a year in the 1950s to 2.7
million in 2000.

Nonetheless, Israelis also like passing through the David Ben Gurion Airport
and all other crossings on their way outside of Israel's borders. In the
past 60 years, there have been 60 million Israeli exits from the country.
Since Israel's establishment, the number has constantly increased from an
average of 38,000 a year in the 1950s to 4.2 million in 2007.

First Published: 05.07.08, 23:13