Illustration
צילום: מאיר פרטוש
Report: 1.65 million Israelis live below poverty line
National Insurance Institute says overall poverty in 2006 drops 0.2%, a third of Israeli children live under poverty line
Some 1.65 million people lived below the poverty line in 2006 and nearly half of them were children, according to the National Insurance Institute's poverty report published Tuesday.
The poverty line is defined as 50% of the median net income and is adjusted to family size.
The overall percentage of those living in poverty dropped 0.2%, but the number of children living in these conditions rose 0.6%: Some 35.8% of Israeli children live under the poverty line – every third child.
The number of families whose income puts them below the poverty line dropped from 20.6% in 2005 to 20%, and the percentage of elderly people living in poverty dropped from 24.4% in 2005 to 21.5% in 2006.
NII data further revealed that the gap between the social classes in Israel widened in 2006: while income rates in the bottom to ninth echelons rose by 3%-5%, the top echelon's income rose by 7%.
Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog told Ynet Israel has a long way to go, when it comes to fighting poverty. "Israel suffers from significant poverty and while we can see some signs of improvement, we still have a long way to go."
The reason for the widening gap between classes is obvious to Herzog. "The financial growth we're experiencing reaches only the top echelons," he said.
