As Jewish diaspora has shrunk, the number of Jews in Israel has passed the six million mark, making it the home of the largest number of Jews in world, according to a university report published in Yedioth Ahronoth.

The report attributes the figures to the increasing number of people who have made aliyah and Israel's rising birth rate.

Since 2012, around 17,000 people have moved to Israel and 170,000 new babies were born in the country. Israel's total population has now passed the eight million mark.

Hebrew University Professor Sergio Della Pergola, who collected the data, told Ynet that "Israel has indeed experienced a growth in the number of Jews last year, but world Jewry outside Israel did not fare so well.

"On the contrary, world Jewry has experienced negative growth."

There are around 13,800,000 Jews across the globe, accounting for 0.2 per cent of the world's population of seven billion.

The United States contains the second-highest concentration of Jews, with two million living in New York and five and a half million in total. France comes next with 500,000 Jewish residents.

There are approximately 1.6 million Arabs living in Israel and 350,000 non-Arab Christians.