Projection: Nearly one third of Israeli Jews will be ultra-Orthodox by 2050

Research by the National Economic Council shows that Haredis currently account for 12.6% of the total population, including non-Jews, and will grow to 24% by 2050

ISRAEL’S CURRENT POPULATION of 9.2 million is expected to grow to 16 million by 2050. Of those 16 million, about a quarter are projected by Israel’s National Economic Council to be haredi Orthodox, Haaretz reported this week.

The new population figures point to a future in which Israel’s Jewish population continues to make up about 80% of its population but in which that Jewish population skews far more heavily Orthodox than ever before. Currently, Israel’s Orthodox population makes up 12.6% of the population. By 2050, that figure will rise to 24% of the total population, the council claims.

Most of that growth will result from the Orthodox community’s birth rate of 6.7 children per woman, far higher than the rate of 3.01 among the population as a whole. Across all sectors of the population, Israelis ages 19 and younger will make up over a third of the population.

Nearly one in three Israeli Jews will be haredi Orthodox by 2050, per Israeli economic projections (JTA)

Photo: Haredi Orthodox Jewish men walk near the Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, June 17 2021 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)