According to a recently published report from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2020 there were 3,049,000 children under the age of 17 in Israel. Among them were 2.2 million Jewish children and 737,000 Muslim children, with another 105,000 children who were registered as Christian or as “other” population groups.

Thus, 33 percent of Israel’s population are children under 17, one in three Israelis. According to the report, more than one-quarter of all Jewish children under 17 are Charedi, this is true in spite of the fact that Charedim comprise only 16 percent of the total Jewish population of the country.

The cities with the highest percentages of children are Beit Shemesh, (51.6%) Bnei Brak (48.2%) and Jerusalem (39.2%). The city with the lowest percentage of children was Tel Aviv with just 21.0%.

In terms of smaller towns, Modi’in Illit had the highest percentage of residents under the age of 17 with 63 percent of the residents falling into that category. The town with the next highest percentage was Alei Zahav at 59.8%  followed by Beitar Illit with 59.4%.

The region of Judea and Samaria has the highest regional percentage of residents under the age of 17 with 47.9% of the population being under that age. The center of the country around Tel Aviv ranked in with the lowest percentage, with just 26.8% of the residents being under the age of 17.

Among the 3,049,000 children in Israel, 2,870,000 live in homes with two parents. Thus 91 percent of children in Israel live with both parents, while only 9 percent, or 246,000, live with only one parent, the vast majority of these live with their mothers.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)