One in 10 Israelis is a Jerusalemite, half of the city's children live below the poverty line

May 26, 2022   

Towards Jerusalem Day:  'The Jerusalem Institute for Policy Studies published this morning (Thursday) the report 'Jerusalem Statistical Yearbook 2022', which presents a comprehensive picture of the Israeli capital. The report shows that one in ten Israelis is a Jerusalemite - and the capital continues to maintain its status as the largest city in the country, by a considerable margin. According to incomplete data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2021, the population of Jerusalem numbered 965,100 residents, an annual increase of 1.51%. The data also shows that the population growth rate in Jerusalem is the same as the population growth rate in Israel as a whole (1.61). Similar to other metropolitan cities in Israel and other countries around the world, Jerusalem's migration balance is negative, and the difference between the number of people moving to live in the city and those leaving it stood at 7,800 people in 2020. 38% of those leaving Jerusalem moved to other localities in the vicinity of Jerusalem. In 2021, the migration balance was unusually negative, and according to provisional data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics, it stood at 10,900 people. The largest number of people entering Jerusalem in 2020 came from the following localities: Bnei Brak, Beit Shemesh, Tel Aviv, Beitar Illit, Ma'ale Adumim, Ashdod and Givat Ze'ev. The localities to which the largest number of people leaving moved are: Beit Shemesh, Tel Aviv, Beitar Illit, Lod, Givat Ze'ev and Bnei Brak. Jerusalem is a mixed city: in 2020, 570,100 Jews lived there, who made up 61% of the city's total residents, and 366,800 Arabs (353,800 Muslims and 12,900 Christians), who made up 39% of the total residents of Jerusalem. The share of the Jewish population in the city decreased from 74% in 1967 to 61% in 2020. At the same time, the share of the Arab population increased from 26% in 1967 to 39% in 2020. Nature of religious identity: In 2021, 257,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews lived in Jerusalem, constituting 45% of the Jewish population in Jerusalem (and 28% of the total population in the city). The religious constituted 23% (130,000 residents) and the traditional and secular constituted 29% (166,000: 79,000 and 87,000 respectively). In addition, the city has a population of people without religious classification (approximately 3,500 residents). In 2020, the number of Arab residents in the city was 366,800. In 2020, the natural increase rate (the difference between the number of births and the number of deaths) of the Jewish population in Jerusalem was higher than that of the Arab population in the city (22.9 and 20.9, respectively). The increase in the natural increase rate among the Jewish population stems from an increase in the birth rate among this population, and especially among the religious and ultra-Orthodox population. Jerusalem is one of the poorest cities in Israel: more than half of the children in the city live below the poverty line. In 2020, 38% of families in Jerusalem, 43% of individuals and 53% of children - which is 206,900 children - lived below the poverty line. The percentage of children living below the poverty line is higher than the percentage of families living below the poverty line, meaning that poverty is a phenomenon that is especially prevalent among large families. While the average salary for men in Israel as a whole is 13,700 shekels, and in Tel Aviv it is 17,300 - in Jerusalem it is only 10,600 shekels. The same is true for women - whose average salary in the entire country is 9,300, and in Jerusalem only 8,400.