An internal Israel Tax Authority document shows that the accelerating departure of affluent Israelis is driving an increase in lost tax revenue estimated at an average of 700 million shekels ($232 million) a year.
The figures bear out a familiar pattern: When a country faces serious challenges, its wealthier residents tend to be the first to leave, moving their jobs, consumer spending and tax payments abroad. Lower-income groups, which face greater difficulty emigrating, are left behind. The data have raised concerns at the Finance Ministry.
The figures show that the rate at which affluent Israelis left the country doubled between 2019 and 2024. Israelis who emigrated in 2019 accounted for an estimated annual loss of about 500 million shekels ($166 million) in tax revenue. In both 2023 and 2024, the annual loss had already reached 1.2 billion shekels ($400 million).
Tax Authority officials warned that the pace of departures pointed to an average annual increase of 700 million shekels ($232 million) in lost tax revenue. At this rate, the authority said, Israel will be losing 3.5 billion shekels ($1.16 billion) in tax revenue every year within five years, figures that are alarming both the Tax Authority and the Finance Ministry.
Who is leaving Israel?
An analysis of those leaving points to a change in the caliber of workers departing the country. In 2019, their average annual salary was 125,000 shekels ($41,500). By 2024, it had climbed to 200,000 shekels ($66,400). Most work in high-tech and medicine, global industries in which professionals can find employment abroad relatively easily. The figures indicate that the rate at which workers in these essential sectors are leaving Israel tripled in just five years.
The age breakdown is also causing deep concern among economic officials, indicating an exodus from Israel's youngest and most productive age groups. In both 2023 and 2024, 1% of all Israelis aged 20 to 30 left the country. Among those aged 30 to 40, the proportion leaving nearly doubled, rising from just 0.4% in 2019 to a record level in the past two years.
