Demographics in Gilo

The ratio between the young parents and the number of children in the neighborhood suggests that there may have been an influx of ultra-Orthodox residents.

By YAIR ASSAF-SHAPIRA
Demographics in Gilo (photo credit: Courtesy)
Demographics in Gilo
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The Israel Central Bureau for Statistics recently published some of its population data classified according to age for 2018. The statistics cover a period of several years, and are also organized by neighborhood. We looked into the ages of residents in various Jerusalem areas.
In 2018 there were 30,800 people living in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood, slightly more than the number living there in 2009, when there were 29,500 residents. Today, children under the age of five account for 10.6% of the population of Gilo (compared to only 9% in 2009), and from the percentages of children in the five to nine (8.3% in 2018 compared to 7.5% in 2009), we see that the neighborhood is undergoing demographic renewal. The emergence of this renewal was already discernible a decade ago, when 9% of the population was comprised of young children.
Another conspicuous demographic group is that of the parents of these children. Currently, the prominent ages are 25 to 34 (15.7%), while a decade ago it was the 20 to 24 age group. It appears that along with the maturation of the parents in the neighborhood, additional young parents moved to Gilo, many of whom would now be in the 25-to-29 age group.
The third group that stands out is the 60-to-69 age group (10.2% in 2018; only 8.6% in 2009). These residents, who were more prominent even a decade ago (back then the 50-to-59 age group was more prominent), are the residents who were in their early 20s in the mid-1970s, when the neighborhood was being populated, and many are apparently the original residents who moved to Gilo as young couples. Perhaps this group was more prominent a decade ago due to the fact that our assessment for the 65 and up age group is inexact.
The ratio between the young parents and the number of children in the neighborhood suggests that there may have been an influx of ultra-Orthodox residents. A similar pattern may be observed in other neighborhoods characterized by ultra-Orthodox migration, such as Kiryat HaYovel. The age structures of additional neighborhoods, including Kiryat HaYovel, appear in the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research blog (jerusaleminstitute.org.il/en/blog/).
Translated by Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann.