The majority of Jewish and Arab Israelis would not choose to emigrate if given the opportunity, according to the data. Photo: Dave Bender

The gap between Jewish and Arab birthrates in Israel has significantly declined over the last decade, Israeli daily nrg reported on Tuesday, citing new data released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics

According to the CBS report, in the year 2014, the average lifetime fertility rate of Arab women was 3.17 children, while that of Jewish women stood at 3.11. The new numbers stand in stark contrast to those published in the early 2000s, when the average fertility rate for Arab women stood at 4.3 children, and for Jewish women at 2.6 children.

The report indicated that at the end of 2014, there were 2.74 million children (ages 0-17) in Israel, making up 33% of the population. 71%, or 1.945 million, of them were Jewish children, 26% or 713,000 of them were Arab, and 3% or 82,000 were listed as “other.”