On the eve of Israel´s 64th Independence Day, the country´s population stood at 7.881 million. At its establishment, the population of Israel was 806,000.

According to numbers published by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday, Israel´s Jewish population stood at 5.931 million people, or 75.3% of the general population.

The Arab population in Israel was 1.623 million, or 20.6% of the general population. The remaining 4.1 percent, or 327,000 people who are classified as "others", are immigrants and their descendants, who are not registered as Jews in the Interior Ministry.

Since last year,161,000 infants were born in Israel, and 39,000 people died. In the past year, 19,000 immigrants arrived in Israel while 8,000 left. An additional 4,500 thousand were added to the population due to family reunification. Since its 63rd Independence Day, Israel´s population grew by 137,500 people, or 1.8 percent.

In 2012, over 70% of the population was born in Israel, and more than half are the second generation to be born in Israel, compared with 35% in 1948. At Israel´s its establishment, only in Tel Aviv there were over 100,000 residents. Today, the population of 14 Israeli cities is over 100,000, six of them over 200,000: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Rishon Letzion, Petah Tikva and Ashdod. (© Copyright 2012 Ha´aretz 04/25/12)