Israel is a densely populated country, with most of its citizens concentrated along the coastal plain or in the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem corridor. With increased affluence has come traffic congestion, as road construction has failed to keep pace with the greater number of cars.

Israel has many ethnic communities. Out of a population of over six million people, about 80% are Jewish and 20% are commonly referred to as Israeli Arab—Palestinian, Bedouin, and Druze (an ethnically Arab people whose religion is an offshoot of Islam). For the Jewish majority, Israel is the site of the ingathering of the exiles, although there has been a continuous Jewish presence in the land in greater or lesser numbers since Biblical times. The Jewish People tend to view themselves as one big family, in principle, if not always in practice. It is, however, a very heterogeneous group. Jews have immigrated from all over the world to live in Israel—some out of necessity as refugees, some as Zionists with strong ideological convictions, some for religious reasons, and others simply to try an alternative lifestyle. Israeli Jews are about 64% native-born; 25% born in Europe, the Americas, or Oceania; and 11% in Asia and Africa.

There has also been a major Arab presence in the country for centuries, particularly since the Arab conquest of the land in the seventh century. During Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, many Arabs fled or were driven out of the fledgling state. About 150,000 remained after Israeli independence, and their number has grown to a million today. Arabic is recognized as an official language, along with Hebrew.

Most of the Israeli Arab population lives in the Galilee and in villages on the Israeli side of the border with the West Bank. Bedouin live mainly in the Negev near Beersheba, but some also live in the Galilee. Nazareth is the largest primarily Arab town within the pre-June 1967 borders. In Arab and Druze villages, as among the Bedouin, many ancient traditions survive.

In addition to Arabs who hold Israeli citizenship, more than 2.5 million Palestinian Arabs reside in the eastern part of Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. About 18,000 Syrian Druse live in the Golan Heights, which was also occupied during the 1967 conflict.

Among the Jews in Israel, there are two major groups—the Sephardim (Hebrew for “Spaniards”), who largely come from the Muslim countries of North Africa and the Middle East, and the Ashkenazim (Hebrew for “Germans”) who generally come from Europe. Although the Judaism of these two groups is largely the same, there are some differences in their synagogue services, dietary laws, rituals and customs. At present, Jews of Sephardic origin constitute more than half of the Jewish population, although the Ashkenazim still tend to dominate the political and cultural life of the country.

One of the cardinal principles of the Israeli State which all governments have adhered to has been the active encouragement of Jewish immigration. There have been several large waves of immigration during this century, the latest being the arrival of some 1 million people from the former Soviet Union between 1989 and the present, including, for the first time, a measurable percentage of non-Jews. Most new arrivals learn some Hebrew and are to one degree or another absorbed into the life of the country. Native-born Israelis, now in the majority, are called Sabras. They are named after the indigenous cactus fruit that is prickly outside and sweet and juicy on the inside—a now trite metaphor for the native Israeli.