Immigration Numbers Fall, but Despite War, Immigrants Continue To Arrive in Israel

Some 45,000 new immigrants arrived in Israel during 2023, roughly two-thirds of the number who arrived in 2022 (73,000), according to figures released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

The bureau said that in 2022 and early 2023 an unusually large number of immigrants, largely from Russia and Ukraine, had moved to Israel following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the ensuing ongoing war. In the 12 months from March 2022 to February 2023, an average of 6,900 immigrants per month arrived in Israel.

However, after February this year, the number of arrivals began to fall and then plunged following the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 and the resulting war in the Gaza Strip.

Still, perhaps surprisingly, over 1,000 immigrants each month have continued to arrive even during the war, with 1,163 arriving in October, 1,534 in November, and 1,411 in December.

The main countries from which immigrants arrived in 2023 were Russia (70.3%), Ukraine (4.5%), Belarus (3.8%), and France (2.1%).

The bureau also reported that the Israeli population in general grew by 1.9% to reach 9.842 million at the end of 2023.

About 179,000 babies were born in Israel in 2023, of whom 73.3% were born to Jewish mothers, 24.1% to Arab mothers, and 2.6% to others.

During the year, about 49,500 people died, a number significantly smaller than in 2022 (52,500 deaths) and 2021 (50,700 deaths). The bureau said the death rate in those years was particularly high because of the COVID pandemic.

However, there was a significant spike in the monthly death rate in October this year, when in one day Hamas terrorists slaughtered some 1,200 people in Israel and took over 240 hostage.