Country Fast Facts: Israel

Following World War II, the British withdrew from their mandate of Palestine, and the UN partitioned the area into Arab and Jewish states, an arrangement rejected by the Arabs. Subsequently, the Israelis defeated the Arabs in a series of wars without ending the deep tensions between the two sides. The territories Israel occupied since the 1967 war are not included in the Israel country profile, unless otherwise noted.

On 25 April 1982, Israel withdrew from the Sinai pursuant to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. Israel and Palestinian officials signed on 13 September 1993 a Declaration of Principles (also known as the "Oslo Accords") guiding an interim period of Palestinian self-rule. Outstanding territorial and other disputes with Jordan were resolved in the 26 October 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace.

In addition, on 25 May 2000, Israel withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon, which it had occupied since 1982. In keeping with the framework established at the Madrid Conference in October 1991, bilateral negotiations were conducted between Israel and Palestinian representatives and Syria to achieve a permanent settlement.

In April 2003, US President BUSH, working in conjunction with the EU, UN, and Russia - the "Quartet" - took the lead in laying out a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict by 2005, based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two states, Israel and a democratic Palestine. However, progress toward a permanent status agreement was undermined by Israeli-Palestinian violence between September 2003 and February 2005. An Israeli-Palestinian agreement reached at Sharm al-Sheikh in February 2005, along with an internally-brokered Palestinian ceasefire, significantly reduced the violence. In the summer of 2005, Israel unilaterally disengaged from the Gaza Strip, evacuating settlers and its military.

The election of HAMAS in January 2006 to head the Palestinian Legislative Council froze relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Ehud OLMERT became prime minister in March 2006; following an Israeli military operation in Gaza in June-July 2006 and a 34-day conflict with Hizballah in Lebanon in June-August 2006, he shelved plans to unilaterally evacuate from most of the West Bank. OLMERT in June 2007 resumed talks with the PA after HAMAS seized control of the Gaza Strip and PA President Mahmoud ABBAS formed a new government without HAMAS. Source: CIA World Fact Book

Population: 7,112,359
note: includes about 187,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, about 20,000 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and fewer than 177,000 in East Jerusalem (July 2008 est.)

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Age structure:
0-14 years: 28% (male 1,018,229/female 971,083)
15-64 years: 62.2% (male 2,242,928/female 2,183,688)
65 years and over: 9.8% (male 303,289/female 393,142) (2008 est.)

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Median age:
total: 28.9 years
male: 28.2 years
female: 29.7 years (2008 est.)

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Population growth rate:
1.713% (2008 est.)

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Birth rate:
20.02 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)

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Death rate:
5.41 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)

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Net migration rate:
2.52 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2008 est.)

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Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
total population: 1 male(s)/female (2008 est.)

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Infant mortality rate:
total: 4.28 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 4.43 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 4.12 deaths/1,000 live births (2008 est.)

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Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 80.61 years
male: 78.54 years
female: 82.79 years (2008 est.)

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Total fertility rate:
2.77 children born/woman (2008 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
0.1% (2001 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
3,000 (1999 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - deaths:
100 (2001 est.)

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Nationality:
noun: Israeli(s)
adjective: Israeli

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Ethnic groups:
Jewish 76.4% (of which Israel-born 67.1%, Europe/America-born 22.6%, Africa-born 5.9%, Asia-born 4.2%), non-Jewish 23.6% (mostly Arab) (2004)

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Religions:
Jewish 76.4%, Muslim 16%, Arab Christians 1.7%, other Christian 0.4%, Druze 1.6%, unspecified 3.9% (2004)

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Languages:
ebrew (official), Arabic used officially for Arab minority, English most commonly used foreign language

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Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 97.1%
male: 98.5%
female: 95.9% (2004 est.)

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School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education):
total: 15 years
male: 15 years
female: 16 years (2006)

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Education expenditures:
6.9% of GDP (2004)

320708
Israel has a technologically advanced market economy with substantial, though diminishing, government participation. It depends on imports of crude oil, grains, raw materials, and military equipment. Despite limited natural resources, Israel has intensively developed its agricultural and industrial sectors over the past 20 years. Israel imports substantial quantities of grain but is largely self-sufficient in other agricultural products. Cut diamonds, high-technology equipment, and agricultural products (fruits and vegetables) are the leading exports. Israel usually posts sizable trade deficits, which are covered by large transfer payments from abroad and by foreign loans. Roughly half of the government's external debt is owed to the US, its major source of economic and military aid. Israel's GDP, after contracting slightly in 2001 and 2002 due to the Palestinian conflict and troubles in the high-technology sector, has grown by about 5% per year since 2003. The economy grew an estimated 5.4% in 2007, the fastest pace since 2000. The government's prudent fiscal policy and structural reforms over the past few years have helped to induce strong foreign investment, tax revenues, and private consumption, setting the economy on a solid growth path.

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GDP (purchasing power parity):
$185.8 billion (2007 est.)

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GDP (official exchange rate):
$161.9 billion (2007 est.)

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GDP - real growth rate:
5.3% (2007 est.)

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GDP - per capita (PPP):
$26,600 (2007 est.)

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GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 2.7%
industry: 30.2%
services: 67.1% (2007 est.)

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Labor force:
2.894 million (2007 est.)

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Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 18.5%, industry 23.7%, services 50%, other 7.8% (2002)

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Unemployment rate:
7.3% (2007 est.)

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Population below poverty line:
21.6% (2005)

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Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.4%
highest 10%: 28.3% (2005)

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Distribution of family income - Gini index:
38.6 (2005)

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Investment (gross fixed):
18.5% of GDP (2007 est.)

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Budget:
revenues: $53.6 billion
expenditures: $53.63 billion (2007 est.)

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Public debt:
80.6% of GDP (2007 est.)

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Agriculture - products:
citrus, vegetables, cotton; beef, poultry, dairy products

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Industries:
high-technology projects (including aviation, communications, computer-aided design and manufactures, medical electronics, fiber optics), wood and paper products, potash and phosphates, food, beverages, and tobacco, caustic soda, cement, construction, metals products, chemical products, plastics, diamond cutting, textiles, footwear

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Industrial production growth rate:
4.1% (2007 est.)

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Electricity - production:
48.7 billion kWh (2006 est.)

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Electricity - consumption:
44.74 billion kWh (2006 est.)

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Electricity - exports:
1.844 billion kWh (2006 est.)

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Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2007 est.)

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Oil - production:
5,966 bbl/day (2007 est.)

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Oil - consumption:
232,300 bbl/day (2006 est.)

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Oil - exports:
82,910 bbl/day (2005)

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Oil - imports:
334,300 bbl/day (2005)

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Oil - proved reserves:
1.94 million bbl (1 January 2008 est.)

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Natural gas - production:
970 million cu m (2006 est.)

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Natural gas - consumption:
970 million cu m (2006 est.)

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Natural gas - exports:
0 cu m (2007 est.)

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Natural gas - imports:
0 cu m (2007 est.)

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Natural gas - proved reserves:
30.44 billion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)

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Current account balance:
$5.197 billion (2007 est.)

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Exports:
$50.37 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

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Exports - commodities:
machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, textiles and apparel

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Exports - partners:
US 35%, Belgium 7.5%, Hong Kong 5.8% (2007)

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Imports:
$55.79 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

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Imports - commodities:
raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough diamonds, fuels, grain, consumer goods

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Imports - partners:
US 13.9%, Belgium 7.9%, Germany 6.2%, China 6.1%, Switzerland 5.1%, UK 4.7%, Italy 4.1% (2007)

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Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$28.52 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

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Debt - external:
$89.95 billion (31 December 2007)

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Economic aid - recipient:
$57.97 billion (2007 est.)

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Currency (code):
new Israeli shekel (ILS); note - NIS is the currency abbreviation; ILS is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) code for the NIS

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Exchange rates:
new Israeli shekels (ILS) per US dollar - 4.14 (2007), 4.4565 (2006), 4.4877 (2005), 4.482 (2004), 4.5541 (2003)