Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa leads Easter Sunday Mass amid eased COVID restrictions, in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 4, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

The Israeli-Christian population is growing rapidly and continues to enjoy high educational and professional attainment levels, according to numbers recently released by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

According to the report from last month, 187,900 Christians reside in Israel, an increase of 1.3 percent from the year before, marking the third consecutive year the population has grown.

In 2021, the Christian population rose to 182,000 with an increase of 1.4 percent, and in 2022, the growth was 2 percent to 185,000 people, according to the CBS’s data. The vast majority of the Christian population — 75.3 percent — are Arab Christians, while Christians make up 1.9 percent of Israel’s total population.

The largest Arab Christian population centers in Israel are Nazareth (20,800), Haifa (16,800), and Jerusalem (13,000).

CBS data has shown that Arab Christian women have some of the highest educational attainment levels in the country.

The latest report found that 55.1 percent of Arab Christians continued their studies toward a bachelor’s degree within eight years of graduating high school, compared to only 34.6 percent of the total number of high school graduates in the Arab school system and 48.1 percent of all graduates in Hebrew education.

According to previous CBS data, 84 percent of Christians are satisfied with their life in Israel: 24 percent answered “very satisfied” and 60 percent were “satisfied.”

In 2021, 815 Christian couples married in Israel, with the average age for the first marriage of Christian grooms being 30.7, and that of Christian brides being 27.4.