Bethlehem prepares for Christmas
Photo: AFP
80% of Christians in Israel are Arabs
Statistics Bureau publishes findings on Christian population in Israel from 2007, stating that among Arab-Christians, men's median age for marriage is 28, average number of children per household is 2.1
The Christian population in Israel numbers 154,000 people, of whom 80% are Arabs, and constitutes 2.1% of the general population, the Central Bureau of Statistics stated Christmas Eve. The data presented was collected in 2007.
The bureau stated that most of the Arab Christians in Israel reside in the north, while just 10% reside in Jerusalem. The non-Arab Christians are scattered throughout the country.
Nazareth, home to 20,000 Christian Arabs (Photo: Yifat Mizrahi)
The city with the largest Arab-Christian population is Nazareth, where 20,000 people belonging to the denomination reside.
The average Arab-Christian household is comprised of 3.4 individuals, which is slightly greater than the average Jewish household (numbering 3.09 people) but fewer than the average Muslim household, which numbers 5.11 individuals.
In the past 50 years the number of children in Arab-Christian households has declined by over 50%, from 4.6 in 1960 to 2.1 in 2007.
The Arab-Christian population's age distribution is similar to that of the Jewish sector in Israel, of which 9% of the population is above the age of 65, and 33% is below the age of 19. In contrast, 52% of the Muslim population is below the age of 19.
The median age of marriage among Christian Arab men was 28.9 in 2006, a year and a half older than Jewish men and two and a half years older than Muslim men. The women's median age of marriage was 23.7, which is a year and a half lower than Jewish women but three years above the Muslim median age.
