Israel

Founded in 1948 as a restored homeland for the Jewish people and a refuge from persecution, Israel is organized under a constitution that guarantees freedom of religion.  Yet Israeli politics and culture are also designed to ensure the country’s status as a Jewish state.  For Catholics, the land is tied to the central events of Christian revelation, including the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, which makes Israel an especially compelling and complicated place to live.   

The Catholic population today includes Palestinian, Hebrew-speaking, and migrant worker and refugee communities. Read more...

Demographics

  • 1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, Online Edition.
  • 2.United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2015 revision.
  • 3.United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Homicide Statistics 2015.
  • 4.Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 2016.
  • 5.UNICEF, State of the World's Children, 2016.
  • 6. Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2020 (Vatican City: Librera Editrice Vaticana, 2022).
  • 7.World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report, 2016.

Footnotes