Tel Aviv continues its growth spurt

390,400 people now live in the city, 52% of them female, while 24% of the city's population is aged 25 to 34, compared with 15.1% nationwide.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
tel aviv beach 88 (photo credit: )
tel aviv beach 88
(photo credit: )
More than 390,000 people now call Tel Aviv home and the city's population is growing by two percent per year, according to official statistics reported in the Hebrew weekly Yediot Tel Aviv. The figures show that while the city's population was falling up to the year 2002, a growth trend began then that has continued steadily since, and there are now 20,000 more people living in the city than there were in 2004. According to the report, 390,400 people now live in Tel Aviv, 52% of them female and 48% male. Some 17.4% of the city's population is aged under 14, compared with 28% nationwide. But 24% of the city's population is aged 25 to 34, compared with 15.1% nationwide. Some 14.6% of Tel Aviv's population is elderly, 1.5% less than in 2003. The report said the city's budget for 2008 is NIS 3.63 billion. In 2007, it raised NIS 2.92 billion from municipal taxes and almost NIS 105 million from parking fines. It also said that 1,758 pubs - one for every 222 residents - operate in Tel Aviv, as do 1,122 restaurants, 51 clubs, 120 coffee shops and 925 kiosks. The city has 113 schools and 343 kindergarten classes, as well as 30 community centers, 16 cultural centers, 21 libraries, 16 museums - but just nine swimming pools. Tel Aviv also has 5,400 dunams of public gardens in addition to the 4,200 dunams of Ganei Yehoshua and Park Hadarom, and some 14 km of beaches, stretching from Bat Yam in the south to Herzliya in the north. The report said that about 1,000 couples married in Tel Aviv last year, and 3,597 babies were born at the Lis Maternity Hospital, with about 50 more boys than girls. Among the newborns were 94 sets of twins and one set of triplets. It also said that 2.34 million tourist nights were registered at the city's hotels last year, about one quarter of them from internal tourism. Some 37% of tourists were from Russia, 36% were from England and 22% were from the US.