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Area: total: 20,770 sq km
land: 20,330 sq km
water: 440 sq km

Climate: temperate hot and dry in southern and eastern desert areas

Terrain: Negev desert in the south low coastal plain central mountains Jordan Rift Valley

Natural resources: timber, potash, copper ore, natural gas, phosphate rock, magnesium bromide, clays, sand

Population: 7,112,359
note: includes about 187,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, about 20,000 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and fewer than 177,000 in East Jerusalem [July 2008 est.]

Age structure: 0-14 years: 28% [male 1,018,229/female 971,083]
15-64 years: 62.2% [male 2,242,928/female 2,183,688]
65 years and over: 9.8% [male 303,289/female 393,142] [2008 est.]

Nationality: noun: Israeli[s]
adjective: Israeli

Ethnic groups: Jewish 76.4% [of which Israel-born 67.1%, Europe/America-born 22.6%, Africa-born 5.9%, Asia-born 4.2%], non-Jewish 23.6% [mostly Arab] [2004]

Languages: Hebrew [official], Arabic used officially for Arab minority, English most commonly used foreign language

Capital: name: Jerusalem
geographic coordinates: 31 46 N, 35 14 E
time difference: UTC+2 [7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time]
daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Friday in March ends the Sunday between the holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur
note: Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1950, but the US, like nearly all other countries, maintains its Embassy in Tel Aviv

National holiday: Independence Day, 14 May [1948] note - Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948, but the Jewish calendar is lunar and the holiday may occur in April or May