Tel Aviv beach. Photo: wiki commons.

Israel’s population has crossed the symbolic threshold of 8 million people, according to statistics provided by the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics. With 75.3% of the population being Jewish this means that there are now some six million Jews in the country, the number of Jews estimated to have been killed during the Holocaust.

In the past year Israel’s population has grown by 145,ooo people, with 160,000 new babies born and 22,000 new immigrants arriving in the country. On the flipside the country registered 40,000 deaths and a meager 7,200 emigrations in the same time period.

According to the statistics, in addition to the Jewish population Arabs constitute 20.5 percent of the country’s population, and  4.2 percent are immigrants from former Soviet Union countries that do not identify as Jewish.

Israel is projected to add another two million residents by 2025.