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Statistics show Israel’s lowest emigration figures in decade

The Central Bureau of Statistics published a new report this week indicating that only 15,200 residents left Israel in 2016 and stayed abroad consecutively for one year or more.

Children land at Ben-Gurion Airport and are greeted by Nefesh B'Nefesh co-founders Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart, as well as Israel's Minister of Aliyah and Integration, Sofa Landver. Credit: Photo by Shahar Azran.
Children land at Ben-Gurion Airport and are greeted by Nefesh B’Nefesh co-founders Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart, as well as Israel’s Minister of Aliyah and Integration, Sofa Landver. Credit: Photo by Shahar Azran.

Noting the lowest emigration figures in 10 years, the Central Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday published a new report this week indicating that only 15,200 residents left Israel in 2016 and stayed abroad consecutively for one year or more.

Among them, 11,100 were Jewish and 700 were Arab.

The 2016 figure represented a 9 percent decline in emigration since the previous year.

With that, according to the CBS, the overall balance was still negative in 2016, as only 8,900 Israelis returned to live in Israel after a year or more abroad. Among those who returned, 6,700 were Jewish and 500 were Arab.

Still, the number of returning residents in 2016 was the highest since 2012, and 5 percent higher than in the previous year, when 8,500 residents returned.

Among Jews and other non-Arabs, 7,800 (54 percent) of those who emigrated were not born in Israel; 6,700 (46 percent) of them were. The median age among émigrés was 28.5, and most of them are male.

Around 50 percent of the males aged 15 or older who emigrated were single, compared to 33 percent of females who were single when they moved abroad.

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