There are more than 900,000 poor children in Israel today. In other words, one in every three children in Israel lives in poverty, according to the annual report published today by the National Council for the Child. The report, submitted to President Shimon Peres by National Council for the Child executive director Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, says that the number of children living below the poverty line totaled 905,000 in 2011, or 35.6% of Israeli children.
For the sake of comparison, there were 889,500 poor children in Israel in 2010. In the past three decades, the proportion of poor children has risen almost 4.5-fold (from 8.1% in 1980 to 35.6% in 2011). Since 1998, the proportion of children living below the poverty line has risen by over 60%.
The National Council for the Child says that, between 2001 and 2011, there was a 48% increase in the number of children known to the welfare services.
Poverty is not the only problem facing many Israeli children. The National Council for the Child's report says that, in 2011, 49,426 children were reported to social workers because of suspected abuse (neglect, or physical, sexual, or emotional abuse), up from 47,184 children who were abused in 2010.
Between 1995 and 2011, the number of abused children rose by 193.9%. 20.3% of the cases involved children were aged 0-5. More than a quarter of the children abused in 2011 were abused by both parents.
The National Council for the Child's report also includes some encouraging figures. It states that, in 2009-11, there was a drop in the proportion of children who reported drinking alcohol, at all ages.
The report also includes figures about family size in Israel. It states that, in 2011, Israel had more than one million families with children. One third of the families had one child, and another third of families had two children. Between 2004 and 2011, the average family size rose slightly to 2.4 children per family. 82.7% of Israeli families have up to three children, and 17.3% of families have four or more children.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 18, 2012
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