Communicated by the Central Bureau of Statistics' Spokesman Jerusalem, 31 December 1998 Population of Israel   At the beginning of 1999, the population of Israel is estimated at 6.037 million. This figure includes 4.783 million Jews (79.2%) and 1.254 million members of other religions (20.8%), of whom 901,000 are Muslim, 129,000 are Christian, 99,000 are Druze and 125,000 are residents who are not listed by religion in the population registry. During 1998, the population of Israel grew by 137,000 (2.3%). The rate of growth has been steadily declining since the beginning of the 1990s. In 1990, the population grew by 5.7%, and the average growth rate was 3.5% for the years between 1990-1995. This drop in growth rate resulted the decreased input of immigration (aliyah) relative to the overall growth of the population, from 0.9% in 1997 to 0.7% in 1998. At the same time, the natural growth rate (number of births minus number of deaths) in 1998 was 1.6%, the highest of any year since 1990. The total number of births this past year was 130,000, greater by nearly 29% than the number nine years ago (100,800 in 1989). In 1998, the Jewish population grew by 81,500. Approximately 69% of the increase stemmed from natural growth, which added 1.2% to the population. The immigration balance added 0.5% to the growth (as opposed to 0.7% in 1997). Figures gathered by the Central Bureau of Statistics show that the annual number of immigrants is on the decline. An early estimate puts the number of immigrants during 1998 at about 56,700, a 14% drop from 1997 when 66,000 immigrated, and less than in 1996, which had 70,600 immigrants. This drop was caused by a decrease in the number of immigrants from the states formerly belonging to the Soviet Union (from 54,600 in 1997 to 45,400 in 1998). The Spokesman for the Central Bureau of Statistics also reported that from 1989 (the year in which the mass immigration from the Soviet Union started) till the end of 1998, 900,000 immigrants arrived in Israel, of whom 769,000 were from the states of the former Soviet Union.