76% of Arab children live below the poverty line, while 44% of Jewish children are impoverished.
By ETGAR LEFKOVITSpoverty metro 88224(photo credit: Jerusalem Post Archives)
A whopping one-third of Jerusalem families live below the poverty line, an annual demographic survey released this weekend shows.
Twenty-three percent of Jewish families and 62% of Arab families in the capital lived in poverty during 2005, according to the 2005/2006 Jerusalem Statistical Yearbook put out by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies.
The city's poverty figures are especially jarring among children: 76% of Arab children live below the poverty line, while 44% of Jewish children are impoverished, the study found.
According to the National Insurance Institute, in 2006 the poverty line stood at NIS 1,990 a month for an individual, NIS 3,184 for a couple and about NIS 5,000 for a couple with two children.
The statistics also reveal the comparatively low percentage of city residents employed in the work force. A mere 45% of Jerusalem residents over the age of 15 work, compared to 64% in Tel Aviv and 56% in Haifa. According to the study, the national average of employed residents over 15 stands at 56%.
The relatively low rate of employment in Jerusalem is attributed both to the low participation of both haredi men and Arab women in the city's work force.
The population of Jerusalem is 750,000, including nearly 500,000 Jews and more than 250,000 Arabs. Nearly one-third of Jerusalem's Jewish population is haredi.
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