More than 69,000 Israelis left the country in 2025 under the shadow of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, leading the country to record a negative migration balance for the second straight year, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday in a year-end report.

Israel’s total population rose 1.1 percent during the year to a record 10.178 million, the CBS said. That was the same growth rate as a year earlier, making it one of Israel’s slowest years of growth ever.

A Taub Center for Social Policy Studies study also published on Wednesday estimated that the growth rate would come in at 0.9% and mark the first time the rate dropped below 1%.

According to the CBS, about 24,600 new immigrants arrived in 2025, 8,000 fewer than in 2024. (That’s more than the 21,900 the Immigration and Absorption Ministry announced Monday.) Most of the decline was attributable to a sharp drop........

© The Times of Israel