Close to 270,000 Israeli citizens have left the country since 2023, marking the highest emigration levels in Israel’s history, according to a new study by researchers at Tel Aviv University.
The study, reported by Haaretz, found that roughly 90,000 Israelis left the country for three months or more in each year between 2023 and 2025. That annual average is well above the roughly 60,000 who emigrated each year between 2010 and 2019.
Drawing on data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics and other government agencies, the study found that more than 86,000 Israelis left the country for over three months in 2023, followed by more than 90,000 in both 2024 and 2025.
Itai Ater, one of the study’s authors, told Haaretz that the research broke from previous emigration reports by counting anyone who spent at least three months abroad, rather than only those gone for a full year, arguing this gave a more accurate picture of the true scale of departures.
Ater said the figures only include long-term Israeli residents who had lived in the country for at least three years before leaving, excluding recent immigrants from Ukraine and Russia who departed within three years of arrival.
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“In 2025, we again see deeply troubling numbers of Israelis who left the country for a significant period, adding to the emigration wave of 2023 and 2024,” Ater said.
“These figures do not yet, in themselves, pose a threat to Israel’s resilience,” he added. “But looking ahead, and unless there is a change, there is growing concern that emigration from Israel will increase to a level that endangers the country’s security and economy.”
Tel Aviv University said earlier research had already identified “a significant and concerning increase” in the departure of doctors, PhD holders, engineers, academics and high earners.
While similar trends have been recorded elsewhere in the world, the university said the exodus of highly educated Israelis poses a particular risk given the country’s lack of natural resources and reliance on skilled labour.
‘Domino effect’
The study warned that rising emigration could trigger a “domino effect”, making the trend harder to reverse the further it progresses.
“In such a situation, every additional emigrant increases the incentive for others to leave,” the university said. “Once emigration numbers cross a certain threshold, reversing the trend will be extremely difficult, perhaps impossible.”
The findings have drawn sharp criticism from Israeli lawmakers. Gilad Kariv, chair of the Knesset’s Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs and a member of the left-wing Democrats party, wrote on X that “Israel is facing a tsunami of emigration, and the government is doing nothing about the issue”.
“This is a strategic threat to Israel’s future, and it is closely linked to the government’s conduct and to the regime coup,” Kariv said, referring to the judicial overhaul launched by the government in early 2023, which triggered mass protests across the country.
Meirav Cohen, a Knesset member from the centre-right Together party, also criticised the government. “They declared they would carry out voluntary emigration from Gaza,” Cohen said on X, referring to the government’s plan to expel Palestinians from the strip. “In the end, the October 7 government encouraged voluntary emigration from the State of Israel.”
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