Israel's Christian community sees slight growth

The Church of Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. (Photo: Getty/iStock)

Israel's Christian community saw a slight increase in 2021, according to latest figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The data published on Christmas Day reported a 2% increase in the number of Christians in Israel last year.

Christians make up 1.9% of the total population in Israel.

Most of the Christians in Israel are Arab Christians (75.8%). They account for 6.9% of Israel's Arab population.

The largest concentration of Arab Christians in the country is to be found in Nazareth, home to 21,100.

This was followed by Haifa (16,700), Jerusalem (12,900), and Shefar'am (10,500).

The size of the average Christian household (3.06 people) was comparable to Jewish households (3.05), but smaller than Muslim households (4.46).

Israeli Christian families had fewer children on average (1.86) than Arab Christian families (1.94), Jewish families (2.42) and Muslim families (2.62).

Non-Arab Christians and Arab Muslims were least likely to pursue higher education after finishing high school (31.2% each), compared to nearly half of Jews (48.2%) and over half of Arab Christians (52.9%).

Of the Christian students studying for a first degree, the most popular subject was musicology (15.7%) followed by management information systems (10.5%), and food engineering and technology (9.9%).

Newsletter Stay up to date with Christian Today
News
Royal College of Nursing criticised for display of trans flag
Royal College of Nursing criticised for display of trans flag

Typically a flag denotes the ownership of a tribe or group over an area.

Christians call for ceasefire amid DRC's Ebola crisis
Christians call for ceasefire amid DRC's Ebola crisis

So far 131 people have been killed by the outbreak.

Without a culture shift, Christian street preachers will continue to be arrested
Without a culture shift, Christian street preachers will continue to be arrested

Christian street preachers are almost invariably arrested under a section of law that was originally intended to deal with football hooliganism.

Thoughts on Ruth
Thoughts on Ruth

Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster reflects on poor judges and famine through the lens of the book of Ruth.