Stats show more Israelis leave country than return
The Central Bureau of Statistics reports a decrease in the number of Israelis remaining abroad for more than a year; The difference between the number of Israelis who left Israel and those who returned stands at 6,300.
According to the a Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) report, the number of Israelis who left Israel for more than a year at a time was lower than it had been in the decade leading up to 2016, but the number of Israelis who came back after residing abroad for more than a year was greater than the rate found between 2012-2016.
The 2016 report that was published earlier this week shows that while the statistics point to a decrease in the number of Israelis remaining abroad for more than a year, the difference between the number of Israelis who left Israel and those who returned stands at 6,300.
The report does not take into account new immigrants. The stats are similar to those compiled between 2010 and 2011, but form a more positive trend for the country than the numbers gatherd in 2015, which showd a difference between the number of those leaving and those returning stood at 8,200.
According to the figures, the number of Israelis abroad at the end of 2016 was estimated between 560,000 - 596,000 residents, not including children born to Israelis abroad.
The report also reveals that the length of the stay abroad of most of the returnees is relatively short. Around 65% returned to Israel after three years abroad at the maximum. 53% of all those leaving while married did so with their spouses, but only 38% of all the married returness came back with them.
CBS noted that new immigrants tend to leave Israel at much higher rates than veteran Israelis. At the same time, the statistics illustrate that they return to Israel at a much higher rate than Israelis.
Around a quarter of those who left in 2016 (26%) immigrated to Israel in the last decade, demonstrating a departure rate of 1.7%—almost ten times higher that the average trend.
Forty-two percent of those returning to Israel in 2016 immigrated to Israel in the past but left again for more than a year at a time.
Approximately 15,200 Israeli residents—0.18% of the total population—left the country in 2016 and remained there for more than a year.
11,100 of them were Jews,while 4,200 were of other ethnicities. By comparison, in the previous year 16,700 Israelis left the country, marking a 9% decrease the following year.
The median age of those who leave the country is 28.5, 53% of whom are men. Among the men above age 15, half were single, compared to a third of the women who left Israel.
Half of the women who left Israel at the age of 15 and above were married, compared to 40% of the men.
In 2016, 8,900 Israelis returned to Israel (0.1% of the population) after residing abroad for more than a year, except those who went back for a visit for less than three months. This marks an increase of 5% compared to 2015, when the number of those who returned stood at 8,500.
Among those who return to Israel, 6,700 were Jews and 2,200 were of other ethnicities. The median age of those returning stood at 29.1, 56% of whom were men.
A comparison of the marital status of women who returned to Israel to women who left in 2016 shows that there were more single women who returned to the country (40% of the returnees compared to 33% of those who left) and fewer married women (45% compared to 50%).
