Jerusalem February 23, 2009 035/2009
Families and Households in Israel - Family Day
On the occasion of “Family Day”, which falls on February 24th this year, the Central Bureau of Statistics presents data on families and households in Israel. In 2007: There were 1.69 million families in Israel. The average size of the Israeli family was 3.7 persons. About half of all families comprised a couple with children up to age 17. There were about 101,000 single-parent families with children up age 17, amounting to 6% of all families in Israel with children up to age 17 – 6% of all families. The percentage of single-parent families in Italy and Spain was 6%; in Norway and Canada – 10%; and in the United States and Germany – 16%. About 97% of all couples in Israel were married, and the rest (about 3%) were cohabiting couples. The percentage of cohabiting couples in Poland was 2%; in Canada – 18%; in Finland – 24%; and in Norway – 26%. A. FAMILIES
Families and Households1 The number of families in Israel in 2007 was estimated at 1.69 million, of which 1.38 million were Jewish (81%), and 273,000 were Arab (16%).2
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The source of the data: The Labour Force Survey 2005. The population does not include institutions, kibbutzim, student dormitories, and Bedouins in the Southern District who live outside of localities. 2 Approximately 43,000 families are headed by non-Arab Christians or persons not classified by religion, most of whom are immigrants from the Former Soviet Union who arrived in Israel in 1990 and after. For explanations and clarifications regarding the contents of this Press Release, Please contact the Press Relations Unit, at 02-652 7845, 050-623 5124
Definitions A household is defined as a group of persons living in one dwelling on a permanent basis most of the week, and having a common expense budget for food. A household may include one person living alone. Family household: A household that comprises at least one family. Non-family household: Includes one person only, or a group of persons without a family relationship. Family (“nuclear family”): two or more persons who share the same household, and are related to one another as a married couple, as parents and children, or as an unmarried couple. The main types of families are: a couple only, a couple with children, or a single parent with children.3 Cohabitation: An unmarried couple living together.
Family Composition: Table 1: Families, by Type of Family 2007 Families Thousands Percentages 1,694. 100.0 3 398.1 23.5 1,080. 63.7 0 856.8 50.6 204.0 12.0 100.8 5.9
Type of Family Total1 Couples without children Couples with children Thereof: with children up to age 17 Single parent families Thereof: Single parent families with children up to age 17
(1) Also includes about 1% of the families consisting of siblings living together without their parents or without children of their own, as well as families of grandparents and grandchildren only, without the children’s parents. The percentage of families consisting of a single parent with children up to age 17 in Israel (5.9%) is similar to that in Italy (6%), Spain (6%), and Greece (5%), and is lower than in the United States (16%), the Netherlands (13%), Norway, and Canada (10%). The composition of families in Israel varies among different population groups: among the Arab population, there is a much higher percentage of families comprising couples with children up to age 17 than among the Jewish population (71% versus 47%, respectively). Among the Jewish population, there is a higher percentage of couples without children in the household (26%) and single-parent families (12%) than among the Arab population (9% and 10%, respectively).
3
Other types of families include: Siblings who live together without their parents, without spouses, or without children, as well as families of grandparents and grandchildren without parents.
Families and Households in Israel - Family Day
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Of the different districts, Tel Aviv had the highest proportion of couples without children (33.6%), and the lowest proportion of couples with children up to age 17 (38.9%). The highest proportion of single parent families with children up to age 17 was highest in the Haifa and Southern districts (7.1% and 7.8%, respectively).
Family Size In 2007, the Israeli family consisted of 3.7 persons on the average: 3.5 persons on the average in Jewish families, compared with 4.9 persons on the average in Arab families. This difference is mainly due to the higher fertility rates among the Arab population. Over one-third of the Arab families (34%) number 6 or more persons; this proportion is three times more than the proportion of families that size among the Jewish population (10%).
Table 2 Family Size, by District 2007 4.3 4.1 3.5 3.6 3.2 3.8 4.5
Jerusalem District Northern District Haifa District Central District Tel Aviv District Southern District Judea and Samaria Area Number of Children per Family
The average number of children up to age 17 (per family with children in that age group) in 2007 was 2.4. In Jewish families, the number was lower than among the among the Arab population (2.2 and 3.0, respectively). The proportion of Arab families with four or more children up to age 17 was twice as high as the proportion of those families among the Jewish population.
Table 3: Percentage of Families with Four of More Children1 By Population Group (Percentages) Total Jews Arabs (1) Only in families with children up to age 17
16.5 13.0 30.6
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Single-Parent Families with Children Up to Age 17 In 2007, there were about 100,800 single-parent families with children up to age 17. The total number of children in those families was 173,000. The average number of children up to age 17 in single-parent families was 1.7, compared with 2.4 in two-parent families. 94% of the single-parent families with children up to age 17 are headed by women.
Over half (54%) of the single-parent families with children under age 17 were headed by a divorced parent; 10% were headed by a never-married parent (almost all of them Jewish women), 14% were headed by a widow/widower, and the rest (approximately 22%) were headed by a parent who is married but separated.
The number of never-married single mothers increased by about 54% – from 8,400 in 2000 to 12,900 in 2007. The proportion of never-married single mothers out of all singleparent families with children up to age 17 increased from 10% in 2000 to about 13% in 2007. Cohabitation Most of the couples in Israel (96.6%) are married. The remaining 3.4% (about 51,000) are cohabiting couples, who live together and are not married. Of those, 47,600 (94%) are Jewish couples. Cohabiting Jewish couples comprise about 3.5% of the total Jewish population and about 4% of all Jewish couples. Between 2000 and 2007, the number of cohabiting Jewish couples increased by 88% (from 27,000 to 51,000). During that period, the relative proportion of Jewish couples increased from 2.5% to 4%. The age composition of cohabiting Jewish couples is younger than that of married couples. Among more than half (52%) of the cohabiting couples, the woman is up to age 34, whereas about 27% of the married women are in that age group. Most of the Jewish cohabiting couples are childless (73%); 21% (about 10,000) of the Jewish cohabiting couples have children up to age 17, compared with 55% of the married couples. Among the “young” married couples where the woman is up to age 34, 81% have children up to age 17, compared with 9% of the young cohabiting couples. The percentage of unmarried couples out of all couples was 24% in Finland, 18% in Canada, 7% in Ireland, and 2% in Poland. B. Households
Number of Households In 2007, there were 2.05 million households in Israel. Of those, about 1.65 million were family households, and 399,000 were non-family households – the majority of those (366,000) were households of individuals who lived alone. 76% of all households comprised one family; about 3% comprised one family with other individuals; about 2% comprised two or more families; 18% comprised one individual; and about 1% were other types of non-family households, such as students who live together and share a common budget for food expenses.
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Employed Persons in Households in 2007 In 2007, there were 2.052 million households in Israel, of which approximately 75% (1.538 million) had employed persons. Persons of working age in households: In 1.705 million households, there was at least one person of working age (i.e., from 15 years to the age of eligibility for old age pension), and 87.3% of those households had at least employed person. There were 346,000 households with only pensioners, i.e., people eligible for old age pension from the National Insurance Institute. In 2007, the number of Jewish households reached 1.723 million. The percentage of households with employed persons increased from 73.9% in 2006 to 74.5% in 2007. In 1.397 million households there was at least one person of working age, and 88.6% of those households had employed persons. There were 279,000 Arab households, and the percentage with employed persons in those households increased from 73.5% in 2006 to 75.8% in 2007. In 264,300 of the Arab households there was at least one person of working age, and 79.9% had employed persons. The number of households with more than two working age persons among the Arab population was higher than among the Jewish population (91.4% versus 77.5%, respectively). However, among the Arab population about 64.2% of the households had only one employed person, whereas 40.9% of the households among the Jewish population had only one employed person, and 59.1% had more than one employed person.
Employed Persons, by Type of Household Of the family households (with at least one family), 82.1% had employed persons, compared with only 45.2% of the non-family households. This difference can be attributed to the large proportion of pensioners in non-family households. Among households of couples with children, the percentage that had employed persons was higher than among households without children (91.6% and 57.1%, respectively). Among households of couples whose youngest child was aged 18-24, a high percentage (94.8%) had employed persons. Single-parent families: 76.1% of the single-parent families had employed persons. The older the children, the higher the percentage of single-parent family households with employed persons. Of single-parent family households in which the youngest child was aged 0-4, 70.4% had employed persons. Among single-parent family households in which the youngest child was aged 15-17, the percentage with employed persons increased to 81.8%.
Housing Density Housing density continued to decline in 2007: 52.6% of the households surveyed had less than one person per room. The smaller the number of persons in the household, the lower the average number of persons per room: among the Jewish population, the average number rooms in one-person households was 2.73, compared with an average of 0.57 in households with 7 or more persons. Among the Arab population, the average number of rooms in oneperson households was 2.34, compared with average of 0.46 in households with 7 or more persons. In Jewish households – the average number of persons per room in 2007 was 0.84. In Arab households, the average number of persons per room was 1.41 (Muslims – 1.50, Christians – 1.18, Druze – 1.20).
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Data from the 2007 Social Survey: Dimensions of Satisfaction among Persons Aged 20 and Over The social survey is an ongoing annual survey, which aims to provide information on the welfare and living conditions of the adult population of Israel, and examines the perceptions of individuals regarding various aspects of their lives. In the survey, interviews were conducted with 7,400 residents aged 20 and over from the entire country, who represent 4.2 million persons in that age group. 95% of the participants in family households reported that they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their relationships with family members, compared with 75% of the sampled participants in non-family households. 86% of the Israelis aged 20 and over in family households reported that they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their lives, compared with 75% of those living in non-family households. 47% of the participants in family households reported that they are unable to cover their monthly expenses. The larger the number of persons in the households, the higher the percentage of households reporting that are unable to cover their monthly expenses (36% of the participants living in households with two persons, compared with 69% of the households with seven or more persons (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Persons Aged 20 and Over* Who Reported that They are Unable to Cover the Monthly Expenses of the Household, by Number of Persons in the Household
80.0 60.0
69 59 36 43 45 50
אחוזים
40.0 20.0 0.0
2
3
4
5
6
7+
מספר נפשות במשק הבית
* Persons aged 20 and over who reside in family households.
Household Expenditure Survey The Household Expenditure Survey was first conducted at the beginning of the 1950s. Until 1997 it was conducted approximately every five years. Since 1997, the survey has been conducted annually. These ongoing surveys include the entire population, excluding kibbutzim, collective moshavim, and Bedouins living outside localities. The data for 2007 are based on 6,173 households that represent 2,000,000 households in the overall population. Household: One person or a group of persons living together in one dwelling, who have a common expense for food. A household can include several families.
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Household Consumption Expenditures, by Main Items (Table A) In 2007, the average monthly expenditure for goods and services among households in Israel was NIS 11,584 – an increase of 3.5% in real terms compared with 2006. In households with children, the proportion of expenditures on food higher than in households without children (17.4% and 16.3%, respectively). In households with three or more children, the proportion of expenditures on food was higher than in households with up to two children (18.9% and 16.5%, respectively). In households with children, the proportion of expenditures on education, culture, and entertainment was higher than in households without children (15.6% and 10.7%, respectively).
Table A: Monthly Consumption Expenditures, by Households With and Without Children 2007
With children 2 3 or children more children 13,168 100.0 16.5 20.4 10.0 4.1 4.1 4.3 15.4 20.6 4.6 13,756 100.0 18.9 19.2 10.3 4.5 4.1 3.9 16.0 18.4 4.7
Total Consumption expenditures – in NIS – Total Consumption Expenditures - Total Food Housing Maintenance of dwelling and household Furniture and equipment Clothing and footwear Health Education, culture, and entertainment Transport and communications Other goods and services 11,584 100.0 16.9 22.3 10.1 3.9 3.4 5.3 13.3 20.1 4.7
Without children 10,039 100.0 16.3 24.9 10.2 3.4 2.7 6.7 10.7 20.4 4.7
Total
13,377 100.0 17.4 20.0 10.0 4.3 4.1 4.2 15.6 19.8 4.6
Monthly Consumption Expenditure, by Selected Goods (Table B) The average expenditure for pita in households with children was three times higher than the expenditure in households without children (NIS 46 versus NIS 11, respectively).
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Table B: Average Expenditure on Selected Items for Households With and Without Children, in NIS
With children 2 3 or children more children 65 55 82 40 35 50 34 24 52 42 42 43 46 39 59 286 307 248 115 107 130 117 115 120 393 422 339
Without Total children Pasteurized milk Breakfast cereal Pita Milk and cheese Snacks Meals outside Public transportation fare Cigarettes Cellular telephone, monthly bill 49 26 21 30 29 278 110 103 315 35 14 11 19 13 271 105 92 248
Total
Ownership of Durable Goods in Households (Table C) In households with children, 80.8% owned a computer and 67.5% had an Internet subscription, whereas in households without children 58.5% owned a computer and 52.3% had an Internet subscription. Cellular telephone: 94.8% of the households with children owned a cellular telephone, and 84.6% of the households without children owned a cellular telephone. In households with three or more children, the rate of cellular telephone ownership was lower than in households with up to two children (91.3% versus 96.8%, respectively). Cable and satellite television subscriptions: The rate of cable and satellite television subscriptions in households without children (75%) was higher than in households with children (59.9%). Less than half (40.8%) of the households with three or more children subscribed to cable or satellite television.
Table C: Ownership of Durable Goods, by Households with and without children Total households Television VCR DVD Cable TV or satellite TV Computer Internet subscriber At least one cellular phone Clothes dryer 90.5 53.0 48.7 68.0 68.9 59.3 89.3 37.8 Households without children 93.2 50.9 41.6 75.0 58.5 52.3 84.6 27.8 Households with Children Up to two Three or more children children 92.3 78.4 59.9 47.2 63.6 44.7 70.4 40.8 84.0 75.1 74.2 55.3 96.8 91.3 48.5 50.8
Total 87.4 55.4 56.9 59.9 80.8 67.5 94.8 49.3
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