(Ilan Lazarovich/Israel Hayom/JNS) Noting the lowest emigration figures in 10 years, the Central Bureau of Statistics this week published a new report indicating that only 15,200 residents left Israel in 2016 and stayed abroad consecutively for one year or more. Among them, 11,100 were Jewish and 700 were Arab.

The 2016 figure represented a 9 percent decline in emigration since the previous year.

With that, according to the CBS, the overall balance was still negative in 2016, as only 8,900 Israelis returned to live in Israel after a year or more abroad. Among those who returned, 6,700 were Jewish and 500 were Arab.

Still, the number of returning residents in 2016 was the highest since 2012, and 5 percent higher than in the previous year, when 8,500 residents returned.

Among Jews and other non-Arabs, 7,800 (54 percent) of those who emigrated were not born in Israel; 6,700 (46 percent) of them were. The median age among emigres was 28.5, and most of them are male.