Over 8 million Israelis on eve of Rosh Hashanah

Israel's population has surpassed 8 million for the first time over the past Jewish calendar year, according to a report released by the Central Bureau of Statistics ahead of the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

The data shows that or 6,066,000 – 75.1 percent – of the country's 8,081,000 inhabitants are Jewish, while 1,670,000 million, or 20.7 percent, are Arab. Just over 4 percent, or 345,000, are defined as "other," a group that includes Christians who are not Arab and people listed as non-Jews in the population registry.

The population grew by 1.8%, or 142,000, over the past year, a rate similar to the ones reported in previous years. Some 163,000 babies were born and 40,000 people died.

On the eve the previous Jewish new year, Israel's population stood at 7,933,200.