The average annual birthrate of the Muslim population in Israel over the past few years has risen to 3.6%, double that of the Jewish population, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced today. This is one of the highest birth rates in the world, even eclipsing those of neighboring Arab countries.
The average number of members in a Muslim family in Israel is 5.4 as opposed to 3.1 in the Jewish Israeli households.
Israel’s Muslims comprise 15 percent of the total population, the CBS added.
Their total is expected to rise to 19% of the overall population by 2020.
The figures were published to coincide with the ‘Eid Al-A’dkha Muslim festival.
Some 5,400 Muslims left Israel to make the traditional pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, as opposed to around 4,700 Muslims who made the trip from Israel last year. Some two million Muslims are in Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj.
Jerusalem has the highest concentration of Muslim residents with over 200,000 people who comprise 30% of the city’s total population. Nearly 40% of the total Muslim population, almost 400,000 people, live in a number of communities in the north of the country, the largest community being Nazereth with more than 40,000.