18,696 People Immigrated to Israel in Year Since Previous Independence Day
Israel welcomed 18,696 immigrants from 103 countries in the past year, with the majority arriving from Russia, the US, and France.
Jerusalem, 16 April, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Ahead of Independence Day 2026, to be celebrated next week, Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption reported that 18,696 immigrants arrived in Israel since Independence Day last year.
This is compared to 26,211 who immigrated to Israel between Independence Day 2024 and Independence Day 2025.
Most immigrants – 6,094 – came from Russia; 3,469 from the US, 3,277 from France. Then, in descending order, immigrants came from Britain, Ukraine, Canada, Belarus, Georgia, Argentina, Germany, South Africa, Brazil, Australia and other countries, including individual immigrants from countries such as Zambia, Uganda, Spanish Morocco, Yemen and more.
In total, immigrants came from 103 different countries around the world.
Most of the immigrants chose to settle in the Tel Aviv and Central District (9,335), followed by the Southern District and Jerusalem (5,490) and then the Haifa and Northern District (3,871).
Regarding the age distribution, most immigrants (5,935) were young people in the 19-35 age range, 4,746 immigrants were infants and children in the 0-18 age range, and 279 are over the age of 81. The number of immigrants who arrived as a nuclear family of between 3-5 people were 1,546 and 68 were families of six people or more, while 935 immigrants were single elderly people.
Of all the adult immigrants, 1,571 were in technology and engineering professions, 922 were doctors and paramedics, 800 are educators, 233 were artists and athletes, and the rest were from diverse professions such as the humanities and social sciences, accounting and law, marketing, construction and food workers, and more.
