Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
Religion in Israel - statistics & facts
Israel is a country emersed religious history, the echoes of which continue to resonate today. Often revered as the Holy Land due to its biblical prominence, it is home to diverse religious communities, from Jews and Muslims to Christians, Druze, Bahai, Samaritans, and other. These populations further branch along denominational lines, degree of religiosity, and liturgical traditions. Numbering seven million, Jewish Israelis formed the largest religious population, of which some 40 percent placed themselves on a spectrum between traditional to highly observant. The Muslim community, the largest religious minority, comprised almost 1.8 million individuals, the majority of whom identified as religious. The local Christian population, predominantly of Arab ethnicity, comprised about 180,000 people. And the comparably small group, the Druze community, which constituted approximately 150,000 members, mostly resided in Northern Israel.
