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Israeli Census Stats Released

Palestinians more impoverished; ultra-Orthodox more hungry

by
Ari M. Brostoff
September 25, 2009

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released its annual report last week, in time for Rosh Hashanah. This week, in advance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the Bureau published a report comparing poverty statistics from 2003 with those from 2007. Separately, the International Peace Institute came out this week with new statistics on Palestinian public opinion on a number of political issues. Here are some highlights.

Number of people who live in Israel: 7,465,500
Percentage of those people who are Jewish: 75.5
Percentage of those people who are Palestinian: 20.3

Percentage of children in Israel labled to be at risk of poverty in 2007: 40
Percentage of Jewish children at risk of poverty in 2007: 27
Percentage of Arab children at risk of poverty in 2007: 73

Percentage of secular Jews “foregoing food for economic reasons” in 2007: 15
Percentage of ultra-Orthodox Jews “foregoing food for economic reasons” in 2007: 30

Percentage of Palestinians who support “a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, separate from Israel”: 55
Percentage of Palestinians who favor a bi-national state of Palestinians and Israelis: 11

Percentage of Palestinians who believe the most important step that could be taken to advance the peace process is evacuation of settlements and outposts: 28
Percentage who believe the most important step is the release of prisoners: 27
Percentage who believe the most important step is “halting demolitions and settlement building activity”: 6

Ari M. Brostoff is Culture Editor at Jewish Currents.