Last update - 00:00 31/12/2007
Number of 'large families' rises, despite welfare payment cuts
By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent
The number of Israeli families with at least four children and the number of single-parent families both increased in recent years. The figures are from the most recent yearbook of the National Council for the Child, which was issued Sunday.
From 1980 to 2000, there was a gradual decline in the number of families with four or more children, from 20.9 percent of all families with children to 16.3 percent. Since 2001, however, according to National Insurance Institute figures in the yearbook, the decline reversed. By the start of 2007, the number had climbed to 17 percent. In 2000, there were 150,000 families in Israel with four or more children - the definition of a large family. At the beginning of 2007, there were 166,000.
Monthly child allowances from the state were cut back sharply beginning in 2003. As a result, the number of large families under the poverty line increased from 54.7 percent in 2004 to 60 percent last year. Overall, one out of every three children in Israel is living under the poverty line, while in the Bedouin community the figure is nearly 70 percent.
About 20 percent of Israeli children, nearly 420,000, are registered with welfare authorities, although not all receive welfare services. This represents a 44 percent increase over 2001. Over two-thirds are registered due to economic reasons.
In the past year, the average number of children per family rose slightly. In 1980, the average was 2.7 children per family. It declined to 2.3 in 2003 and rose to 2.4 in 2006. This figure reflects a rise in the number of families with three or more children and a drop in the number of one-child families, possibly due to the dwindling number of families immigrating from the former Soviet Union.
About 8.5 percent of children in Israel are in single-parent families, compared to 6.8 percent a decade ago. The sharpest rise, of about 50 percent, was in families headed by an unmarried single parent, - from 23,800 in 2000 to 35,400 in 2006.
Of the 2.365 million children in Israel today, 69.1 percent are Jews, compared to 75 percent a decade ago; 1.9 percent are Christian, compared to 2.7 percent in 1995. The proportion of Muslim children rose from 20.2 percent to 24 percent.
The ultra-Orthodox community of Beitar Illit is Israel's youngest city, with children making up 62.6 percent of the population. At the other end of the spectrum, 20 percent of Tel Aviv is under the age of 18.
According to the yearbook, 93 percent of Israeli children have a computer at home and 80 percent have their own cell phone.
The number of criminal cases involving minors fell by 11 percent from 2004 to 2006. The number of minors suspected of violent crimes remained steady, but the number of cases rose because more cases were initiated for each minor.
The average weight of new army recruits is rising. While in the 1980s only 6.6 percent of male recruits weighed more than 81 kilos at the time of enlistment, by 2006, that number doubled to 13 percent. The number of female recruits weighing 81 kilos or more rose even more, from 1.7 percent to 4 percent.
Related articles: