22,400 residents leave Israel in 2006

Some 22,400 residents left Israel in 2006, according to new data released Thursday by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). This figure is higher than the number of new immigrants who made aiyah that year.

Last summer, Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that for the first time in history, Israel saw a trend of negative immigration in 2005 and 2006, with the number of emigrants from Israel exceeding the number of new immigrants to the Jewish state.

The official CBS figures now confirm the estimates and point to an ongoing trend that continued in 2007, when the number of new immigrants was reduced even more.

According to the data, 2.3 Israeli citizens out of every 1,000 are considered emigrants from Israel – people who have left the country and have been living abroad for more than a year consecutively.

However, there are experts in statistics who claim that not every person who has been away from the country for more than a year should be considered an emigrant. According to these experts, an unknown number of Israelis take long trips overseas, study in foreign countries or are sent abroad as emissaries on behalf of Israeli companies or even the State, and plan to return to Israel within a few years.

CBS clarified Thursday that its figures on emigrants only refer to residents who had lived in Israel for at least 90 consecutive days before leaving the country. In other words, the data do not refer to Israelis who live abroad and visit Israel occasionally.

653,000 never returned

Thursday's figures regarding 2006 revealed that the number of Israelis who left the country for more than a year was 3.2 residents out of every 1,000. About 23% of those who left returned to Israel by the end of April 2008, and are believed to have resided abroad as part of a long trip or a mission or for study purposes, or may have sought to emigrate but regretted the move later on.

The CBS data also showed that some 9,600 Israeli residents returned to the Jewish state in 2006 after living abroad for at least one year consecutively.

The Israeli immigration balance that year (the difference between the number of resident who left the country for at least one year and the number of residents who returned to Israel after residing abroad for at least one year) was negative, totaling 12,800 people. The previous year saw an immigrant balance of 11,000 people.

CBS also reported Thursday that since the State's inception until the end of 2006, some 653,000 Israelis left the country for more than a year and never returned. As this assessment includes Israeli citizens who died abroad, between 530,000 and 558,000 Israelis live outside the country today. This figure does not include children born abroad to Israelis residing in foreign countries.