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Once again, we have arrived at the 10 days of thanks, from Holocaust Remembrance Day to Israeli Independence Day. "Even if our mouths were full of song like the sea and our tongues rejoiced like the rushing waves," we could not manage to express our thanks for the great privilege of living in such a shining period in our people's history. Where were we a little over 70 years ago, and where are we now? From scattered, lowly people that was trampled by anyone who passed by and a third of whom went up as smoke in the crematoria, we rose from the ashes and bloomed into a strong, proud nation that is being courted by many countries. Thank God.
Every year, I choose to present figures collected for us by Dr. Adam Reuter, founder of Financial Immunities, and Noga Kainan, president of the CFO Forum. In their book "Israel – Island of Success," they write extensively about the subject. Ahead of our holiday of independence, here are a few figures to make us feel better.
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Israel has been ranked eighth in the world in the Power category of the Best Countries Index, which measures countries' global influence by the following criteria: a leader, economically influential, politically influential, strong international alliances and a strong military. Only the U.S., Russia, China, Germany, Britain, France, and Japan came out ahead of us. We're in the Top 8 club!
What's happened in the past 30 years? In 1988, 4.44 million people were living in Israel, compared to 8.96 million last year. If we're already talking about it, Israel has passed the 9 million mark – an increase of over 100%! Every year, some 30,000 men and woman make aliyah and some 10,000 Israelis return from living abroad. About 15,000 leave, nearly half of whom are new immigrants who don't make it, something we need to work on. All in all, this makes up positive immigration to Israel of about 25,000 per year. In other words, in the past five years, we've taken in close to 125,000 people.
Thirty years ago, the gross domestic product stood at $44 billion. Now it is more than 700% higher, standing at over $355 billion. At the same time, the per capita GDP has increased from $10,000 30 years ago to over $38,000 last year. Israel's foreign currency reserves were $4 billion 30 years ago, and now they total $115 billion – a 2,775% increase!
The debt-to-GDP ratio continues to shrink. In 1988, government debt was 123% of the GDP, and last year it had been nearly halved to 59%. That means we have less debt in the world. The tax burden is also down from 43% in 1988 to 32% in 2018. In 1988, annual inflation stood at 16%, compared to only 1% in 2018. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Israeli economy has grown by 90%, which is more than double the average growth of 34% among OECD nations.
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In 1988, defense and security costs ate up 14% of the GDP, compared to the 5% they entailed in 2018. In 1988, U.S. aid stood at 7% of the GDP, whereas in 2018 it made up only 1%. Total exports grew from $10 billion in 1988 to some $107 billion in 2018, an increase of 970%! In the same period, all but 4% of Israel's electricity was produced from imported resources (coal, etc.). After the huge discoveries of the offshore natural gas reserves, independent resources for the production of electricity jumped to 73% – an increase of 1725%! At the end of the 1980s, desalinated water comprised only 3% of Israel's water resources, and today desalinated water makes up some 50% of all water consumption in Israel.
In 1988, only 38% of women in Israel participated in the workforce. Today, that number exceeds 60%. Despite appearances, the Gini Index of inequality this year was the lowest we have seen in the past 20 years. The reason for the reduced inequality is because the ultra-Orthodox and Arabs are joining the workforce. Over 50% of haredi men and 73% of haredi women work. Haredi men have been increasingly performing military or national service for a decade now, and what used to be a few hundred are now a few thousand, and the sky's the limit.
Israel is ranked third in the world (after Japan and Canada) in the number of college-educated citizens. An educated society. In 1988, there were 70,000 university students in the country, compared to 307,000 in 2018, an increase of 339%. According to a report from the Council of Higher Education, 11,000 haredi students registered for university and college in 2016. This past year, there were even more. When it comes to Arabs, in 1990, Arabs comprised only some 10% of B.A. students and 2% of M.A. students. Today, they make up 20% and 15%, respectively.
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In contrast to rumors of a "brain drain," here are the numbers: From 1980 to 2018, nearly 400,000 academics made aliyah and 77,000 left the country, leaving us with a net gain of about 320,000 "brains." When it comes to returning academics, we see that between 2010 and 2016 some 4,500 people with a Ph.D. or other senior academic degrees returned to Israel. Over half found jobs at universities and the rest went to work in industry or as entrepreneurs. Research and development comprises a bigger percent of Israel's GDP than any other country in the world. When it comes to digital readiness – the level of computerization and technological understanding and knowledge in anticipation of future global competition – Israel is ranked 12th in the world, much higher than Japan, Germany, South Korea, and other nations.
Unemployment in Israel currently stands at only about 4%, the lowest since the state was founded. Its credit rating is AA-, putting us into a small group of only 17 countries. This means that the Israeli economy is stable, so Israel pays relatively low interest abroad. The average wage has risen dramatically in the past 10 years, by 34%, to over 10,500 shekels. To compare, other OECD nations saw their average wage increase by an average 3.7% alone in the same period. And we haven't even mentioned the start-up nations that is flourishing here, the medical developments and patents that don't stop making their way to the rest of the world.
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Do these figures help explain why Israeli society is ranked 13th on the World Happiness Report? Maybe. But it's not only the economic situation. We're an optimistic people, even though every day we are flooded with warnings and threats that our future is in danger, heaven forbid. We've gotten used to it. The optimism has to do with us being an ancient people, who ever since we were first sent into exile in the 6th century B.C.E learned from our prophets and teachers that our national and cultural mission was not over and there was still hope of returning to the land of our forefathers and living a sovereign life, free from the yoke of foreigners.
Ahead of Independence Day, we should review the calculations I've done. How old are we, as a people? It has been at least 3,200 years, if not more, since the Israelite tribes crossed the Jordan River in the 13th century BCE. Let's say that the average lifespan is 80 years. So if we divide 3,200 by 80, we can count more than 40 years for our people for every one year a person lives. The State of Israel is 71 years old; mature. But in the historical arithmetic of the Jewish people, it is a mere 2-year-old. We waited for it for 1,813 years, counting from the failed Bar Kokhba revolt at 135 C.E. Our forefathers and foremothers prayed for this young being amid their tears in the various diasporas, deportations and waves of killings. Now that it has been born, let us give thanks and wait patiently and faithfully. We are still destined for great things.
Dror Eydar is Israel's next ambassador to Italy.
