Considered the capital of Gush Etzion, it had a population of 10,806 in 2019. Modern Efrat was established in 1983 by Moshe Moskovits, who became the first mayor of Efrat and Shlomo Riskin, an Orthodox rabbi from New York City who settled in Efrat and became its Chief rabbi.

Efrat’s population are mainly religious Zionist, with a small number of ultra-orthodox and of non-observant residents. There are more than twenty Orthodox synagogues, mainly Ashkenazi, but a Sephardi and a Yemenite synagogue also exist and there are several Yeshivot, and Kollelim. The population includes native-born Israelis, and immigrants who have made aliyah from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, France, South Africa, Argentina, The Netherlands, Canada, and Russia.

Efrat is made up of seven neighborhoods named for the Seven Species: Rimon (pomegranate), Te’ena (fig), Gefen (grapevine), Dekel (date palm), Zayit (olive), Tamar (date), and Dagan (grain – symbolizing both wheat and barley).