— The population of Israel will reach four million one year from now but will amount to only 5.5 million by the end of the century, according to Dr. Moshe Sicron, the government’s chief statistician. He based his protection on the slowdown of the population growth rate in recent years to less than 2.5 percent per annum.
Sicron said that in terms of numbers this amounts to an annual population increase of about 90,000 a year. Most of the growth is the result of natural increase — the excess of births over deaths. Net immigration — the difference between the number of immigrants arriving and the number of Israelis deporting — contributed only 30 percent to the growth rate.
Sicron’s figures showed a decline in the birth rate over the past five years. He said it reflected “a decrease in the birth and fertility rate within both the Jewish and non-Jewish populations.” At the end of 1980, Israel’s population will total 3,917,000, of which 3,380,000 are Jews and 637,000 are non-Jews, he said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
