In 2022, 74,714 immigrants arrived in Israel - a record number of immigrants since the beginning of the 2000s, and the number of immigrants is expected to be high in 2023 as well.
According to the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS), there may be another wave of immigration from the former USSR, mainly from Russia (60.9% of the total immigrants) and Ukraine (19.6%), as a result of the fighting in Ukraine and its consequences.
According to the CBS, in 2022, the largest number of immigrants came from Russia, Ukraine, the United States, Belarus, and France. Due to the fighting between Russia and Ukraine, at the end of February 2022, there was a significant increase in the number of immigrants, and it continued throughout the year. The largest number of immigrants arrived in March (10,494 immigrants, which is 14% of the total number of immigrants), followed by November (8,796 immigrants, 11.8%) and December (8,088 immigrants, 10.8%).
Regarding the civil status in which the immigrants entered Israel, more than half (54.4%) joined the population as immigrants or forced immigrants, and slightly less than half (45.6%) arrived in Israel as tourists and changed their status to immigrants after their arrival.
The data also show that about 3.4 million immigrants have so far immigrated to Israel, about 46.2% of whom immigrated from 1990 onwards. In 2022, 74,714 immigrants arrived, three times the number from 2021. The rate of immigrants increased accordingly and stood at 7.8 immigrants per 1,000 residents (compared to a rate of 2.7 immigrants in 2021). Of all the immigrants in 2022, 86.0% came from the USSR (former) - mainly from Russia (60.9% of the total immigrants), Ukraine (19.6%), and Belarus (3%). 4.0% came from the United States and 3.0% - from France.
In addition, it appears from the data that the immigrant population is older than the population in Israel - the median age of the immigrants who immigrated in 2022 was 35.8, compared to 30.2 among the general population in Israel.
Women were the majority among all immigrants (51.9%). The ratio of men to women among the total immigrants was: 928 men to 1,000 women. The differences between the sexes are particularly noticeable among the immigrants from Ukraine, where there is a clear majority of women - 61.1% and the ratio of men to women was 638 men to 1,000 women. The level of education at the time of immigration among immigrants aged 15 and older who arrived in 2022 was very high - 71.5% of them studied 13 years or more.
68.9% of the immigrants aged 15 and over were engaged in an academic occupation before immigrating to Israel, of which approximately 40.5% (10,315 immigrants) had occupations in the fields of law, society, and culture. In 2022, 1,857 immigrant citizens settled in Israel. Together with the other immigrants, they amount to approximately 76,571 new immigrants who arrived in Israel.
The new immigrants settled for the first time, mainly in the center of the country. Nearly half (44.3%) settled in the Tel Aviv (22.7%), Central (21.5%), and Haifa (15.8%) districts, compared to lower percentages in the Jerusalem (11.4%) and South (12.6%) districts. The marital status of most immigrants aged 15 and over was married (65.4% of men, 62.0% of women).