While Christian population is decreasing across Middle East, it's on rise in the Jewish state

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) published information on the Jewish state's Christian community, showing that the population has increased by 1.3% from the year before.

Around 187,900 Christians live in Israel, representing 1.9% of the total population. Over the last two years, the Christian population has been growing in Israel.

In 2021, the population increased by 1.4% to 182,000, and in 2022, there was about 2% growth amounting to 185,000, according to the CBS.

Arab Christians make up 75.3% of the total number of Christians in Israel, representing just 6.9% of the total Arab population in the Jewish state.

While Israel’s Christian population continues to flourish, Christians are gradually disappearing from most other countries in the Middle East.

There has been a “horrifying growth” in the persecution of Christians by Muslims in the Middle East, according to the organization Open Doors, which publishes an annual list of places where Christians are subjected to high or extreme levels of persecution and discrimination.

This year, Christians suffered the most persecution in Yemen, Libya, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and other Middle Eastern and Muslim-majority countries.

Israel did not appear on the list.

The CBS found there were 815 Christian weddings in Israel during 2021, with the average age of the Christian groom being 30.7 years old, and the bride, 27.4.

These ages are higher than the average age of brides and grooms among Jews and Muslims. Christian couples also have slightly fewer children with 2,343 babies born to Christian women, including 1,704 born to Arab Christian women making a total fertility rate of 1.68 children per Christian woman.

The 2023 total fertility rate in Israel was at 2.9 births per woman, a 0.78% decrease from the year before.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women give birth to the most children, with a fertility rate of 6.6 children per woman. Among the religious Jewish population, the rate was 3.9 and among the secular, 2.0.

According to the CBS, most Arab Christians live in northern Israel, with 70.2% living in the Northern District and 13.6% in the Haifa District. More than one-third of non-Arab Christians (36.5%) live in those districts, whereas 38.7% live in central Israel, including Tel Aviv.

The cities with the most Arab Christians are Nazareth (20.800), Haifa (16,800), Jerusalem (13,000) and Shfaram (10,600).

More than 84% of Christians graduated high school in 2022 and more than half of the Arab Christian students went on to study for a bachelor’s degree within eight years of their high school graduation, compared to just one-third (34.6%) of the total number of high school graduates in the Arab school system and less than half (48.1%) in the Hebrew education system.

In 2022, almost three-quarters (70.5%) of Christians over the age of 15 took part in the labor force, according to the CBS. This included 73.5% of men and 68.2% of women with the percentage dropping to 62.2% for Arab Christian females specifically.

Israel had an overall monthly rate of participation in the labor force of between 60% and 65% in 2023, the CBS revealed.