At the end of 2020, the population of Ethiopian origin in Israel numbered 159,500 residents. Approximately 88,500 were born in Ethiopia, and 71,000 were Israeli-born with fathers born in Ethiopia.
In 2020, 1,080 immigrants arrived in Israel from Ethiopia.
Approximately 63% of the population of Ethiopian origin lives in two main districts: about 38% live in the Central District and about 25% live in the Southern District. At the end of 2020, the urban locality with the highest number of residents of Ethiopian origin was Netanya (approximately 12,200 persons). However, the highest percentage of residents of Ethiopian origin out of the total population in a locality was found in Qiryat Mal'akhi (15.8%).
Live births: In 2020, 4,036 infants were born to women of Ethiopian origin in Israel. That year, the average number of children that a woman of Ethiopian origin is expected to bear during her lifetime was 2.89.
During the 2019/20 academic year, 31,841 students of Ethiopian origin – 2.3% of the total population of students in the Hebrew education system – were enrolled in primary and secondary schools.
The percentage of 12th-grade students of Ethiopian origin taking matriculation exams was 92% in 2019/20, compared with 95.2% of the students in the Hebrew education system overall (excluding ultra-Orthodox supervision).
The percentage of those eligible for a matriculation certificate that meets university entrance requirements has been rising in recent years.
The number of students of Ethiopian origin in institutions of higher education (excl. the Open University) has been increasing in recent years: from 2,372 in 2011/12 to 3,782 in 2020/21.
In 2019, 1,489 students of Ethiopian origin attended vocational training courses, which is 2.7% of all students in training in that year.
There were 2,249 active athletes of Ethiopian origin in 2019/20, approximately 1.7% of the total number of active athletes.
Approximately 28,000 Ethiopian-born persons (a rate of about 320 per 1,000 persons) were registered at the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs in 2020.
Persons with disabilities – Of all the people with a blind/visually impaired certificate from the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, about 2.6% were persons born in Ethiopia; the rate is about 7 per 1,000 persons. Persons of Ethiopian origin were about 1% of IDF disabled persons recognized after 1986 (after Operation Moses), about 2% of all people recognized as persons on the autistic spectrum and about 2% of all people recognized as persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs).
The percentage of persons of Ethiopian origin who were judged in criminal trials constituted 7.2% of the total number of residents of Israel in the Jewish and Other population who were judged. The percentage of juveniles of Ethiopian origin was much higher than that of adults.
