Israel: Ultra-Orthodox Jewish population grew by 509% since 1979

On the occasion of Israel’s Independence Day celebrations, researchers from the Haredi Policy Research Institute have compiled a statistics report about the demographic growth of the ultra-Orthodox (Haredim) community in Israel.

The researchers note that there are no hard numbers dating back to the early years of the state, as official data on Haredim as a subset of the population has only been collected years later. The earliest date for which reasonably reliable data exists is 1979, when the ultra-Orthodox community numbered some 212,000, or 5.6-percent of the total population. 

Since then, the community has grown by 509-percent and today numbers approximately 1.29 million, or 12.9-percent of the total population. For comparison, the general population (non-Orthodox Jews and Arabs combined) increased by 135-percent between 1979 and 2023.

According to the Institute's projections, when Israel celebrates its 90th anniversary, the number of ultra-Orthodox Jews will reach 2.15 million, representing 18-percent of the population. When the Jewish state celebrates its centenary in 2048, there is expected to be 2.86 million ultra-Orthodox Jews, which will amount to 21.2-percent of all Israelis.