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2.49 for Druze. Collectively and individually, these rates are sharply above the 1.66 children per
woman in the United Kingdom and the 2.05 children per woman in the United States.
Israelis can expect to live nearly eighty-one years, a life expectancy rate that is very high,
ranking thirteenth in the world, higher than that of the United Kingdom (seventy-nine) or the
United States (seventy-eight), despite the number of Israeli casualties from war and terror-
ism. Ninety-two percent of the population of Israel is urban, and more than 97 percent of the
people are literate.
Birthrates tend to decline as living standards rise and women achieve more equality. For
example, the fertility rate of Muslim Arab citizens of Israel dropped from 4.67 throughout
the 1990s to 3.73 percent in 2009. But for religious and cultural reasons, the relatively higher
birthrate for Jewish Israelis than for Europeans or North Americans will probably continue.
Although 75.4 percent of Israel's population is offi cially classifi ed as Jewish, most of the al-
most 4 percent whose religion is unspecifi ed are Russian immigrants who identify themselves
as Jewish even though not being considered Jewish by the rabbinical authorities. A small num-
ber of Russian immigrants consider themselves Russian Orthodox Christian.
In 2009, the Arabs accounted for 20.3 percent of the total population; 16 percent of Israelis
were Muslim, 1.7 percent were Christian, and 1.6 percent were Druze. The Muslim population
is about 1.25 million, including east Jerusalem residents.
Much of Israel's rapid population growth after 1948 was due to Jewish immigration. The
fi rst census showed a population of 872,000, but by 1958, the population had risen to just under
3 million. Augmented by immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Israel's population stood
at around 6 million in 1998 and 7.24 million in 2007. It showed one of the fastest growth rates
in the world.
An ever-larger proportion of the population is native-born, rising from only 8.4 percent
of the population in 1972 to more than 67 percent of the population in 2004 to 76 percent in
2009. Israel's total population has been growing at a rate of 1.8 percent every year since 2003,
the Jewish population at a rate of 1.6 percent and the Arab population at a rate of 2.6 percent,
although this gap has narrowed.
Population growth together with Israel's small size have contributed to high population
density, which increased by more than 125 percent between 1995 and 2007. Israel is one of the
most densely populated countries in the West, with an average of 883 people per square mile
(341 people per square kilometer). Even this statistic understates the crowdedness of the urban
areas because more than half the country is sparsely populated desert and rocky hills. Slove-
nia, a country of similar size and topography, has a population density of only 256 people per
square mile (99 people per square kilometer).
After the War of Independence, half of Israel's population resided in Tel Aviv and the cen-
tral region along the coast and in Jerusalem; only 13 percent lived in the north and the south.
The second most populated area during the early years was Haifa, in the north. Over the years,
the population in Tel Aviv and central Israel has declined in relative terms while the population
of the periphery has increased to approximately 30 percent of the entire population.
These trends were a result of individual residential preferences. Today, almost half of Is-
rael's Jewish population resides in the central region, where Jews make up 90 percent of the
population; in Tel Aviv, Jews make up 93 percent of the population. Less than a quarter of
