Israel (population 6.2 million)¹ is a country in the Middle East that covers an area of 20,770 sq. km. It borders the Mediterranean Sea between Egypt and Lebanon and with land bordering Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The population 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.²

According to the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), Israel is ranked 22/177 countries worldwide (value 0.908)³. This places Israel in the group of countries with high human development.