ByMIRIAM SELA-EITAM

AUGUST 3, 2026 15:47

Israel confronts a wave of emigration, cautioned Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee Chair MK Gilad Kariv (Democrats) on Monday after a Tel Aviv University study revealed that more than 90,000 Israelis departed in 2025 for three months or longer.

The research, drawn from Central Bureau of Statistics figures, indicates the total number of citizens leaving for three months or more since 2023 far exceeds the level recorded a decade earlier.

The study reports 268,930 departures across 2023 (86,509), 2024 (91,499) and 2025 (90,922). By comparison, only 83,219 citizens left during the equivalent three-year span from 2013 to 2015.

“Since taking office I have warned that Israel faces a surge of emigration and the government has taken no action,” Kariv stated. “We have repeatedly requested that an official be assigned to address the issue in full.”

“We have urged ministers to deliver a multi-year strategy to reverse the outflow. Yet this coalition appears to view the trend as beneficial.”

“Today’s study confirms the troubling pattern: 90,000 Israelis left last year, many of them doctors, engineers and academics,” Kariv added. “This represents a strategic risk to Israel’s future and is tied directly to government policy and the judicial overhaul.”

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dismissive remarks on the Knesset floor remain fresh. Such disregard reflects the coalition’s reckless and anti-Israeli approach,” he said.

Kariv urged Israelis living abroad to return and cast ballots in the next elections.

“To all Israelis who have left,” he said, “change is coming and we need your participation to achieve it.”

Migration debate intensifies after October 7

Because a full-year departure index for 2025 will not be released until 2027, researchers relied on the three-month threshold, which correlates strongly (0.96) with longer-term data.

Using this measure, they project that 45,000 to 50,000 citizens will have left Israel in 2025 for a year or more.

The study notes that public discussion of Israeli emigration resurfaced during the November 2022 elections, the judicial reform protests and again after the October 7 attacks.

Updated figures on migrant characteristics are essential, the authors argue, so policymakers and the public can gauge the economic and social impact.

Emigration poses risks to key sectors

Unlike most nations, large-scale emigration from Israel could produce severe effects because the economy depends heavily on high-tech, advanced medicine and academia.

Loss of professionals in these areas would damage core industries and threaten national economic stability.

“Even in 2025 we continue to see concerning numbers of Israelis leaving for extended periods, building on the outflows of 2023 and 2024,” said study co-author Prof. Itai Ater of the Kohler Faculty of Management and head of the Economists for Democracy Forum.

“These numbers alone do not yet threaten Israel’s resilience,” Ater noted.

“Looking forward, however, continued growth in emigration could endanger security and the economy if no corrective steps are taken,” he warned.

The study was prepared by Prof. Itai Ater of the Kohler Faculty of Management and head of the Economists for Democracy Forum, Prof. Netai Bergman, head of the School of Economics, and Doron Zamir, a doctoral student in the Kohler Faculty of Management, all at Tel Aviv University.