JERUSALEM (AFP)---Israel's population has exceeded 7.9 million, according to official statistics released this week.

Israel has 7,933,200 inhabitants, of which 5,978,600 are Jewish Israelis comprising around 75.4 percent of the total population, the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics reported.

There are also 1,636,600 Arabs (20.6 percent) and about 318,000 people who are neither Jews or Arabs, the bureau said. The statistics do not reflect some 

220,000 migrant workers who live in Israel.

Israeli population has increased by about 1.8 percent over 12 months, a rate similar to that observed in recent years, said the bureau, assessing the 

growth rate of the Jewish population at 1.8 percent and Arabs 2.4 percent.

The Israeli Arab community is made up of descendants of 160,000 Palestinians who stayed on their lands after the creation of Israel in 1948.

Israeli statistics include some 270,000 Palestinians living in east Jerusalem.