Social distress: The Central Bureau of Statistics has published its social survey, which reveals difficult data regarding the social and economic situation of Israeli citizens.
According to the survey, approximately 471% of people aged 20 and over are dissatisfied with their financial situation, with 451% of Jews and 591% of Arabs being dissatisfied with their financial situation.
About 14.51% of Israelis felt poor in the past year (about 725,300 people). In terms of distribution, the ultra-Orthodox (221% compared to 101% of non-Ultra-Orthodox) and the Arabs (about 291% compared to 121% of Jews) feel poorer. Another, not surprising, statistic is that the feeling of poverty increases as income decreases and the number of children increases.
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But it turns out that young people are less optimistic, with about 171% of young people (aged 20-44) reporting a sense of poverty, compared to 91% of those aged 65 and over. It should be emphasized that this is a sense of poverty, meaning those who are above the official poverty line, but in reality feel poor.
Another hard statistic that is being published: 39% people aged 20 and over report that they are unable to cover all of their monthly household expenses. The phenomenon is particularly acute among Arabs, where 62% report that they are unable to cover their expenses, compared to 34% among Jews.
27% report that their financial situation has worsened compared to 5 years ago.
And there are those who are forced to give up basic necessities: 16% of Israelis gave up food in the past year due to financial hardship (about 822 thousand people); 11% of Israelis gave up a hot meal at least once every two days in the past year; about 41% gave up sufficient heating or cooling in their homes (about 2.1 million people); and about a tenth of the population gave up purchasing medicine (about 360 thousand people).
But there is some optimism: about 40% of Israelis estimate that their economic situation will improve in the coming years, and only 17% estimate that their economic situation will be worse. Here too, there is a difference between Jews and Arabs: 40% of Jews compared to 35% among Arabs.
Finally, a quarter of Haredi Jews, over 401% of non-Haredi Jews, and a third of Arabs, aged 25-44, report that their financial situation today is better than it was in the home they grew up in when they were 15 years old.
