Languages of Israel
| Languages of Israel | |
|---|---|
 Map showing languages in Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza Strip. Blue shows dominantly Hebrew speaking areas, lighter blue shows mixed Hebrew and Arabic speaking areas, white shows dominantly Arabic speaking areas. | |
| Official | Hebrew |
| Semi-official | Arabic |
| Immigrant | Russian |
| Foreign | English |
| Signed | Israeli Sign Language |
| Keyboard layout | |
| Ancient Hebrew Aramaic Phoenician Akkadian Ancient Egyptian | |
The Israeli population is linguistically and culturally diverse. Hebrew is the country's official language, and almost the entire population speaks it either as a first language or proficiently as a second language. Its standard form, known as Modern Hebrew, is the main medium of life in Israel. Arabic is used mainly by Arab citizens of Israel, who comprise about one-fifth of the population. Arabic has a special status under Israeli law.
English is known as a foreign language by a significant portion of the Israeli population as it is widely used in official logos and road signs alongside Hebrew and Arabic. Data collected between 2018 and 2020 by the National Center for Exams and Evaluation showed that 33% of Israeli students are able to hold a basic conversation in English; such data only refers to academic students who had declared to have studied English, which indicates that English knowledge among the general population is at a much lower level.
Russian is spoken by about 20% of the Israeli population, mainly due to the large immigrant population from the former Soviet Union. The 19th edition of Ethnologue lists 36 languages and dialects spoken through Israel.
According to a 2011 survey of Israelis over 20 years of age conducted by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 49% report Hebrew as their native language, Arabic 18%, Russian 15%, Yiddish 2%, French 2%, English 2%, Spanish 1.6%, and 10% other languages (including Romanian, and Amharic, which were not offered as answers by the survey). The study also noted that 90% of Israeli Jews and over 60% of Israeli Arabs have a good understanding of Hebrew.