Rael Goodman, head of the Jewish Agency in the UK, said that the statistic represented “once again a true vote of confidence in Israel – a thriving economy, a country full of opportunities, offering an exciting and meaningful future in the heart of the Jewish world”.
The 2015 figure for the diaspora as a whole – a 10 per cent rise on 2014 and the highest since 2003 - reflected large contingents in particular from France, Russia and the Ukraine.
Aliyah from France, up from 7,200 in 2014 to 7,900 in 7,900 last year, was the highest for any individual country.
But it was well short of the 15,000 predicted by some after the terror attacks in Paris at the beginning of last year.
