Israel has become a regional economic and military powerhouse, leveraging its prosperous high-tech sector, large defense industry, and concerns about Iran to foster partnerships around the world. The State of Israel was established in 1948. The UN General Assembly had proposed to partition the British Mandate for Palestine into an Arab and Jewish state. Arab states rejected the UN plan and were subsequently defeated militarily in the 1948 war that followed the withdrawal of the British on 14 May 1948. Israel was admitted as a member of the UN in 1949 and saw rapid population growth, primarily due to migration from Europe and the Middle East, over the following years. Israel and its Arab neighbors fought wars in 1967 and 1973 and Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the course of the 1967 war, and subsequently administered those territories through military authorities. Israel and Palestinian officials signed interim agreements in the 1990s that created an interim period of Palestinian self-rule in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. While the most recent formal efforts between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to negotiate final status issues occurred in 2013-2014, the US continues its efforts to advance peace. Israel signed the US-brokered normalization agreements (the Abraham Accords) with Bahrain, the UAE, and Morocco in 2020 and reached an agreement with Sudan in 2021. Immigration to Israel continues, with more than 73,000 estimated new immigrants, mostly Jewish, in 2022.
The Israeli economy has undergone a dramatic transformation in the last 30 years, led by cutting-edge, high-tech sectors. Offshore gas discoveries in the Mediterranean, most notably in the Tamar and Leviathan gasfields, place Israel at the center of a potential regional natural gas market. In late 2022, a US-brokered agreement between Israel and Lebanon established their maritime boundary, allowing Israel to begin production on additional gasfields in the Mediterranean. However, Israel’s economic prosperity is not consistently mirrored in the Israeli public’s financial stability. Structural issues such as low labor force participation among religious and minority populations, low workforce productivity, high costs for housing and consumer staples, and high-income inequality, remain a concern for many Israelis and an important consideration for Israeli politicians. Former Prime Minister Benjamin NETANYAHU returned to office in late 2022 continuing his dominance of Israel’s political landscape at the head of Israel’s most rightwing and religious government. NETANYAHU previously served as premier from 2009 to June 2021, becoming Israel’s longest serving prime minister.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas militants inside the Gaza Strip launched a combined unguided rocket and ground attack inside southern Israel, followed soon after by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) air strikes inside Gaza. The following day, Israeli Prime Minister NETANYAHU formally declared war on Gaza. The IDF, on 28 October, launched a large-scale ground assault inside Gaza.
land: 21,497 sq km
water: 440 sq km
border countries (6): Egypt 208 km; Gaza Strip 59 km; Jordan 327 km (20 km are within the Dead Sea); Lebanon 81 km; Syria 83 km; West Bank 330 km
continental shelf: to depth of exploitation
lowest point: Dead Sea -431 m
mean elevation: 508 m
arable land: 13.7% (2018 est.)
permanent crops: 3.8% (2018 est.)
permanent pasture: 6.3% (2018 est.)
forest: 7.1% (2018 est.)
other: 69.1% (2018 est.)
note 2: the Malham Cave in Mount Sodom is the world’s longest salt cave at 10 km (6 mi); its survey is not complete and its length will undoubtedly increase; Mount Sodom is actually a hill some 220 m (722 ft) high that is 80% salt (multiple salt layers covered by a veneer of rock)
note 3: in March 2019, there were 380 Israeli settlements,to include 213 settlements and 132 outposts in the West Bank, and 35 settlements in East Jerusalem; there are no Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, as all were evacuated in 2005 (2019)
9,043,387 (2023 est.) (includes populations of the Golan Heights or Golan Sub-District and also East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel after 1967)
note: approximately 236,600 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem (2021); following the March 2019 US recognition of the Golan Heights as being part of Israel, The World Factbook no longer includes Israeli settler population of the Golan Heights (estimated at 23,400 in 2019) in its overall Israeli settler total
noun: Israeli(s)
adjective: Israeli
Jewish 73.5% (of which Israel-born 79.7%, Europe/America/Oceania-born 14.3%, Africa-born 3.9%, Asia-born 2.1%), Arab 21.1%, other 5.4% (2022 est.)
Hebrew (official), Arabic (special status under Israeli law), English (most commonly used foreign language)
major-language sample(s):
ספר עובדות העולם, המקור החיוני למידע בסיסי (Hebrew)
The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information.
Jewish 73.5%, Muslim 18.1%, Christian 1.9%, Druze 1.6%, other 4.9% (2022 est.)
0-14 years: 25.96% (male 1,200,721/female 1,146,556)
15-64 years: 61.66% (male 2,839,124/female 2,737,054)
65 years and over: 12.38% (2023 est.) (male 506,536/female 613,396)
total dependency ratio: 66.9
youth dependency ratio: 47
elderly dependency ratio: 19.9
potential support ratio: 5 (2021 est.)
total: 30.1 years (2023 est.)
male: 29.5 years
female: 30.7 years
1.56% (2023 est.)
19.3 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)
5.6 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)
1.9 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)
population concentrated in and around Tel-Aviv, as well as around the Sea of Galilee; the south remains sparsely populated with the exception of the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba
urban population: 92.9% of total population (2023)
rate of urbanization: 1.51% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
4.421 million Tel Aviv-Yafo, 1.174 million Haifa, 970,000 JERUSALEM (capital) (2023)
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
0-14 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2023 est.)
27.7 years (2019 est.)
3 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est.)
total: 3 deaths/1,000 live births (2023 est.)
male: 3.6 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 2.5 deaths/1,000 live births
total population: 82.2 years (2023 est.)
male: 80.2 years
female: 84.3 years
2.94 children born/woman (2023 est.)
1.44 (2023 est.)
NA
improved: urban: 100% of population
rural: 100% of population
total: 100% of population
unimproved: urban: 0% of population
rural: 0% of population
total: 0% of population (2020 est.)
8.3% of GDP (2020)
3.63 physicians/1,000 population (2020)
3 beds/1,000 population (2018)
improved: urban: 100% of population
rural: 99.3% of population
total: 99.9% of population
unimproved: urban: 0% of population
rural: 0.7% of population
total: 0.1% of population (2020 est.)
note: on 31 August 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Asia; Israel is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine
26.1% (2016)
total: 3.07 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
beer: 1.78 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
wine: 0.08 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
spirits: 1.16 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
other alcohols: 0.04 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
total: 21.2% (2020 est.)
male: 28.9% (2020 est.)
female: 13.5% (2020 est.)
NA
51.7% (2023 est.)
7.1% of GDP (2020 est.)
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 97.8%
male: 98.7%
female: 96.8% (2011)
total: 16 years
male: 15 years
female: 17 years (2020)
limited arable land and restricted natural freshwater resources; desertification; air pollution from industrial and vehicle emissions; groundwater pollution from industrial and domestic waste, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Marine Life Conservation
temperate; hot and dry in southern and eastern desert areas
agricultural land: 23.8% (2018 est.)
arable land: 13.7% (2018 est.)
permanent crops: 3.8% (2018 est.)
permanent pasture: 6.3% (2018 est.)
forest: 7.1% (2018 est.)
other: 69.1% (2018 est.)
urban population: 92.9% of total population (2023)
rate of urbanization: 1.51% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
0% of GDP (2018 est.)
0% of GDP (2018 est.)
particulate matter emissions: 19.47 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)
carbon dioxide emissions: 65.17 megatons (2016 est.)
methane emissions: 13.02 megatons (2020 est.)
municipal solid waste generated annually: 5.4 million tons (2015 est.)
municipal solid waste recycled annually: 1.35 million tons (2017 est.)
percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 25% (2017 est.)
salt water lake(s): Dead Sea (shared with Jordan and West Bank) - 1,020 sq km
note - endorheic hypersaline lake; 9.6 times saltier than the ocean; lake shore is 431 meters below sea level
municipal: 1 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)
industrial: 100 million cubic meters (2020 est.)
agricultural: 1.2 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)
1.78 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)
high-income, technology- and industrial-based economy; highly dense, fast-growing labor force; recent debt spikes; persistent inequality and poverty; significant tariff and regulatory burdens, especially in agriculture; quantitative easing in effect
$393.861 billion (2021 est.)
$362.632 billion (2020 est.)
$369.494 billion (2019 est.)
note: data are in 2017 dollars
8.61% (2021 est.)
-1.86% (2020 est.)
4.16% (2019 est.)
$42,100 (2021 est.)
$39,400 (2020 est.)
$40,800 (2019 est.)
note: data are in 2017 dollars
$394.93 billion (2019 est.)
1.49% (2021 est.)
-0.59% (2020 est.)
0.84% (2019 est.)
Fitch rating: A+ (2016)
Moody’s rating: A1 (2008)
Standard & Poors rating: AA- (2018)
note: the year refers to the year in which the current credit rating was first obtained.
agriculture: 2.4% (2017 est.)
industry: 26.5% (2017 est.)
services: 69.5% (2017 est.)comparison rankings:
household consumption: 55.1% (2017 est.)
government consumption: 22.8% (2017 est.)
investment in fixed capital: 20.1% (2017 est.)
investment in inventories: 0.7% (2017 est.)
exports of goods and services: 28.9% (2017 est.)
imports of goods and services: -27.5% (2017 est.)
milk, potatoes, poultry, tomatoes, carrots, turnips, tangerines/mandarins, green chillies/peppers, eggs, vegetables
high-technology products (including aviation, communications, computer-aided design and manufactures, medical electronics, fiber optics), wood and paper products, potash and phosphates, food, beverages, and tobacco, caustic soda, cement, pharmaceuticals, construction, metal products, chemical products, plastics, cut diamonds, textiles, footwear
6.05% (2021 est.)
4.186 million (2021 est.)
5.05% (2021 est.)
4.33% (2020 est.)
3.8% (2019 est.)
total: 8.8% (2021 est.)
male: 8.4%
female: 9.2%
22% (2014 est.)
note: Israel’s poverty line is $7.30 per person per day
38.6 (2018 est.)
on food: 16.2% of household expenditures (2018 est.)
on alcohol and tobacco: 2.9% of household expenditures (2018 est.)
lowest 10%: 1.7%
highest 10%: 31.3% (2010)
revenues: $139.374 billion (2019 est.)
expenditures: $154.927 billion (2019 est.)
-2% (of GDP) (2017 est.)
72.6% of GDP (2020 est.)
59.6% of GDP (2019 est.)
60.4% of GDP (2018 est.)
21.9% (of GDP) (2020 est.)
calendar year
$21.09 billion (2021 est.)
$22.486 billion (2020 est.)
$14.747 billion (2019 est.)
$143.884 billion (2021 est.)
$114.422 billion (2020 est.)
$117.779 billion (2019 est.)
note: data are in current year dollars
United States 27%, China 8%, India 4%, Germany 3%, Ireland 3% (2021)
note: Approximately, 6% of Israel’s exports went to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, but official data are not available individually for the Palestinian territories.
diamonds, integrated circuits, refined petroleum, medical instruments, packaged medicines, measuring instruments (2021)
$124.578 billion (2021 est.)
$95.977 billion (2020 est.)
$108.784 billion (2019 est.)
note: data are in current year dollars
United States 12%, China 11%, Germany 7.5%, Switzerland 7%, Turkey 6% (2020)
diamonds, cars, crude petroleum, refined petroleum, broadcasting equipment (2021)
$212.934 billion (31 December 2021 est.)
$173.292 billion (31 December 2020 est.)
$126.008 billion (31 December 2019 est.)
$132.5 billion (31 December 2020 est.)
$99.886 billion (2019 est.)
$94.247 billion (2018 est.)
new Israeli shekels (ILS) per US dollar -
Exchange rates:
3.23 (2021 est.)
3.442 (2020 est.)
3.565 (2019 est.)
3.591 (2018 est.)
3.6 (2017 est.)
electrification - total population: 100% (2021)
installed generating capacity: 18.993 million kW (2020 est.)
consumption: 59,192,500,000 kWh (2019 est.)
exports: 6.243 billion kWh (2020 est.)
imports: 0 kWh (2020 est.)
transmission/distribution losses: 2.642 billion kWh (2019 est.)comparison rankings:
fossil fuels: 93.7% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
nuclear: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
solar: 5.9% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
wind: 0.3% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
hydroelectricity: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
tide and wave: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
geothermal: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
biomass and waste: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est.)
production: 0 metric tons (2020 est.)
consumption: 5.089 million metric tons (2020 est.)
exports: 0 metric tons (2020 est.)
imports: 5.565 million metric tons (2020 est.)
proven reserves: 0 metric tons (2019 est.)
total petroleum production: 0 bbl/day (2021 est.)
refined petroleum consumption: 232,400 bbl/day (2019 est.)
crude oil and lease condensate exports: 0 bbl/day (2018 est.)
crude oil and lease condensate imports: 232,900 bbl/day (2018 est.)
crude oil estimated reserves: 12.7 million barrels (2021 est.)
294,300 bbl/day (2017 est.)
111,700 bbl/day (2017 est.)
98,860 bbl/day (2017 est.)
production: 10.474 billion cubic meters (2019 est.)
consumption: 9.442 billion cubic meters (2019 est.)
exports: 0 cubic meters (2021 est.)
imports: 820.508 million cubic meters (2019 est.)
proven reserves: 176.017 billion cubic meters (2021 est.)
61.092 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est.)
from coal and metallurgical coke: 13.653 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est.)
from petroleum and other liquids: 29.416 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est.)
from consumed natural gas: 18.023 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est.)
113.273 million Btu/person (2019 est.)
number of registered air carriers: 6 (2020)
inventory of registered aircraft operated by air carriers: 64
annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers: 7,404,373 (2018)
annual freight traffic on registered air carriers: 994.54 million (2018) mt-km
4X
42 (2021)
33
note: paved runways have a concrete or asphalt surface but not all have facilities for refueling, maintenance, or air traffic control; the length of a runway required for aircraft to safely operate depends on a number of factors including the type of aircraft, the takeoff weight (including passengers, cargo, and fuel), engine types, flap settings, landing speed, elevation of the airport, and average maximum daily air temperature; paved runways can reach a length of 5,000 m (16,000 ft.), but the “typical” length of a commercial airline runway is between 2,500-4,000 m (8,000-13,000 ft.)
9
note: unpaved runways have a surface composition such as grass or packed earth and are most suited to the operation of light aircraft; unpaved runways are usually short, often less than 1,000 m (3,280 ft.) in length; airports with unpaved runways often lack facilities for refueling, maintenance, or air traffic control
3 (2021)
763 km gas, 442 km oil, 261 km refined products (2013)
total: 1,497 km (2021) (2019)
standard gauge: 1,497 km (2021) 1.435-m gauge
total: 20,391 km (2021)
paved: 20,391 km (2021) (includes 449 km of expressways)
total: 45 (2022)
by type: container ship 6, general cargo 2, oil tanker 4, other 33
major seaport(s): Ashdod, Elat (Eilat), Hadera, Haifa
container port(s) (TEUs): Ashdod (1,584,000) (2019)
LNG terminal(s) (import): Hadera
manyapis