Israel's population reached approximately 9.7 million people as of 2023, making it the world's only Jewish-majority state with Jews comprising 73.6 percent of the population. Arab citizens constitute 21.1 percent, while 5.3 percent identify as neither Jewish nor Arab. This demographic composition reflects the state's foundation as a national home for the Jewish people and its inclusion of significant minority communities with deep historical roots in the region. The population density of 424 people per square kilometer places Israel among the more densely settled countries globally, though distribution remains highly uneven with the Negev Desert covering 60 percent of land area while holding less than 10 percent of the population.
The Jewish population itself divides along several axes. Approximately 45 percent identify as secular, 25 percent as traditional, 10 percent as religious Zionist, and 10 percent as Haredi or ultra-Orthodox, with these proportions shifting as Haredi birth rates average 6.6 children per woman compared to 2.2 for secular Jewish women. The ancestral geography splits between Ashkenazi Jews whose families came from Europe and Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews from Middle Eastern and North African origins. By 2023 roughly 45 percent of Israeli Jews identified as Mizrahi or Sephardic, reflecting immigration patterns from Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Iran, and other Muslim-majority countries during the state's first decades. Approximately 200,000 Ethiopian Jews have immigrated since 1980, primarily through Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Solomon in 1991. Russian-speaking immigrants number approximately 1.2 million following waves from the former Soviet Union beginning in 1989, fundamentally reshaping Israeli culture and politics.
Arab citizens of Israel represent a population distinct from Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This community numbers approximately 2 million people, comprising 83 percent Muslim, 9 percent Christian, and 8 percent Druze according to 2022 figures. Most descend from the approximately 156,000 Arabs who remained within Israel's 1949 armistice borders, while their relatives became refugees. Arab citizens maintain separate educational systems teaching in Arabic, distinct municipal structures in majority-Arab towns, and family law governed by religious courts. The Druze community of approximately 150,000 people differs from Muslim and Christian Arabs through its distinct monotheistic religion and compulsory military service, which applies to Druze men but not to other Arab citizens. Bedouin Arabs number approximately 300,000, split between those in recognized towns and an estimated 90,000 living in unrecognized villages lacking infrastructure connections.
Hebrew functions as the primary language of the state after its revival as a spoken vernacular beginning in the 1880s. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda arrived in Ottoman Palestine in 1881 and raised the first native Hebrew speaker since ancient times. The language was declared official alongside English and Arabic during the British Mandate, then became the dominant administrative and educational language after 1948. Arabic holds special status following the 2018 Nation-State Law, though its standing as a second official language ended with that legislation. Russian, Amharic, Yiddish, French, and English serve as significant community languages. Approximately 49 percent of Israeli Jews reported speaking Russian at some level in a 2020 survey, while English education begins in third grade and most signage appears in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.
The deep history begins with archaeological evidence of human habitation reaching back to the Paleolithic period. The Carmel Caves near Haifa contain Neanderthal and early Homo sapiens remains dated to 100,000 years ago. Jericho's settlement layers date to 9000 BCE, making it among the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. The Bronze Age saw Canaanite city-states across the region from 3300 BCE to 1200 BCE. Egyptian records from the Merneptah Stele, dated to 1208 BCE, contain the earliest known reference to Israel as a people in Canaan. The Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerged around 1000 BCE, with archaeological evidence including the Tel Dan Stele from the 9th century BCE referencing the House of David. The Assyrian conquest destroyed the northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE, while the Babylonian Empire destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple in 586 BCE, initiating the first major exile.
The Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great permitted Jewish return beginning in 538 BCE, leading to construction of the Second Temple completed in 516 BCE. Alexander the Great conquered the region in 332 BCE, beginning Hellenistic rule that continued under the Ptolemaic and Seleucid dynasties. The Maccabean Revolt erupted in 167 BCE against Seleucid religious persecution, establishing the independent Hasmonean Kingdom that ruled until Roman conquest in 63 BCE. The Roman period saw construction of Caesarea as a major port city and expansion of the Second Temple under Herod the Great, who ruled as a Roman client king from 37 BCE to 4 BCE. Jewish rebellion against Rome led to the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE when Titus destroyed the Second Temple, leaving only the Western Wall standing. The Bar Kokhba revolt from 132 CE to 135 CE resulted in massive Jewish casualties, exile from Jerusalem, and the region's renaming as Syria Palaestina.
The Byzantine Christian period began with Constantine's conversion in the 4th century CE and saw construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335 CE. Muslim armies under the Rashidun Caliphate conquered Jerusalem in 637 CE, with Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab entering the city and establishing Muslim rule that would continue for most of the next 1,300 years. The Dome of the Rock was completed in 691 CE on the Temple Mount site. Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 CE, establishing the Latin Kingdom that lasted until Saladin's reconquest in 1187 CE. Mamluk rule from Egypt governed from 1260 to 1517, when the Ottoman Empire absorbed the region. Ottoman administration continued for 401 years until British conquest in 1917 during World War I.
Jewish presence persisted throughout these periods despite demographic minority status after the Roman period. The Mishnah was compiled in the Galilee around 200 CE, and the Jerusalem Talmud was completed there by 400 CE. Jewish communities in Safed, Jerusalem, Tiberias, and Hebron maintained continuous residence through medieval and early modern periods. The Jewish population in Ottoman Palestine numbered approximately 10,000 in 1800, growing to 85,000 by 1914 as Zionist immigration began.
Modern Zionism emerged as a political movement through Theodor Herzl's work following the Dreyfus Affair in France. Herzl published Der Judenstaat in 1896 arguing for a Jewish state as a solution to European antisemitism. The First Zionist Congress convened in Basel, Switzerland in 1897, establishing the World Zionist Organization. Practical immigration called the First Aliyah brought approximately 25,000 Jews between 1882 and 1903, primarily from Russia and Romania fleeing pogroms. The Second Aliyah from 1904 to 1914 added 40,000 immigrants and established the first kibbutz collective farms. Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as the first modern Hebrew city, growing from sand dunes north of Jaffa.
British forces under General Edmund Allenby captured Jerusalem in December 1917. Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour had issued the Balfour Declaration in November 1917 stating British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine. The League of Nations granted Britain the Mandate for Palestine in 1922, incorporating the Balfour Declaration into its terms. The Jewish population grew to 175,000 by 1931 and 608,000 by 1946 through continued immigration including the Fifth Aliyah of 250,000 German Jews fleeing Nazi persecution between 1929 and 1939. Arab opposition produced recurring violence including the 1929 Hebron massacre killing 67 Jews and the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt. Britain severely restricted Jewish immigration through the 1939 White Paper despite escalating persecution in Europe.