One in three Israelis is a child or teenager, according to new figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics to mark Universal Children’s Day.
At the end of 2024, Israel was home to about 3,188,000 children ages 0 to 17. Of them, 75.8 percent were Jews and others (a category that includes people with no religious classification), 23.6 percent were Arabs and the rest were classified as foreign residents.
Children made up 31.7 percent of Israel’s population at the end of 2024. They accounted for 31.4 percent of Jews and others, 35.5 percent of Arabs and 7.6 percent of foreign residents. The share of children in the Arab population has been declining for two decades. In 2005 about 47 percent of Arabs in Israel were children, dropping to about 41 percent in 2015 and even lower today. The bureau said the decline stems mainly from falling fertility rates, from roughly four children per woman in the early 2000s to 3.5 in 2010 and about 2.6 in 2024.
Among municipal localities, Bir Hadaj in the Negev had the highest share of children, with 63.4 percent of residents under 17. It was followed by Modiin Illit at 60.1 percent, then Yitzhar, Ali Zahav, Brukhin, Tal Zion, Beitar Illit, Saawa in the Negev, Talmon and Shiloh.
Metula had the lowest share of children, with only 14.5 percent of residents under 17 — meaning one in seven residents is a minor. Next were Bat Yam at 19.4 percent, followed by Nesher at 20.4 percent, Kiryat Yam at 20.7 percent, Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Mi’ilya at 21.3 percent each, Ramat Gan at 21.8 percent and Bnei Ayish at 21.9 percent.
Among Israel’s large cities, Beit Shemesh ranked first with 51.4 percent of residents under 17, meaning slightly more than half the city’s population. Bnei Brak followed at 48.1 percent and Jerusalem at 37.2 percent. All three have large Haredi populations (ultra-Orthodox Jews).
Modiin-Maccabim-Reut was next at 30.9 percent, followed by Rehovot at 30.4 percent, Ashdod at 29.2 percent, Ashkelon at 27.5 percent, Petah Tikva at 27.4 percent, Hadera at 26.9 percent, Netanya at 26 percent, Herzliya at 24.7 percent, Beersheba at 24.4 percent and Holon, known as the City of Children, at 24.3 percent.
At the bottom of the list among major cities were Haifa at 22.8 percent, Rishon Lezion at 22.6 percent, Ramat Gan at 21.8 percent, Tel Aviv-Jaffa at 21.3 percent and Bat Yam at 19.1 percent.
Fertility data among large cities also showed sharp differences. Bnei Brak had the highest fertility rate at 6.13 children per woman, followed by Beit Shemesh at 5.84. Haifa had the lowest at 1.87, with Bat Yam close behind at 1.89, followed by Ramat Gan at 1.92 and Tel Aviv-Jaffa at 1.98.
The report also noted early marriages among girls. In 2023, 99 girls under 18 married in Israel, compared with 102 in 2022. They accounted for about 0.2 percent of all women marrying that year. About 91 percent of these girls were Muslim, most from the Jerusalem District.
In 2024, 119 girls under 18 gave birth, including 67 Muslims, 47 Jews and 5 with no religious classification. That was a slight rise from 108 in 2023, driven mainly by an increase in Jewish girls who gave birth (22 in 2023) despite a decline among Muslim girls (84 in 2023). Most of the girls who gave birth in 2024 lived in the southern district (34.5 percent) and the Jerusalem District (28.6 percent), with about 18 percent in the northern district. For about 93 percent of these girls it was a first birth, up from 91 percent in 2023 but somewhat lower than 2021–22 levels of 94 percent.
Higher education among young teens also grew. In the 2024–25 academic year, 5,932 youths ages 12 to 17 studied for a bachelor’s degree, compared with 3,354 the previous year — a 76.9 percent increase. The rise was driven mainly by a doubling of enrollment at the Open University, Israel’s distance-learning institution.
The share of Open University students among teen undergraduates climbed from 75.3 percent in 2023–24 to 86.1 percent, while the share studying at other universities fell from 14.7 percent to 8.9 percent.
The bureau also reported that in 2024 there were about 199,800 children with disabilities recorded in the national registry. About two thirds were boys (64.6 percent) and one third were girls (35.4 percent). Of these children, 62.8 percent were ages 0 to 9, 20.1 percent were 10 to 13 and 17.1 percent were 14 to 17. About 81.8 percent were Jews and others and 18.2 percent were Arabs.
According to 2023 registry data, the most common disabilities among children were autism spectrum disorders (35.8 percent), physical disabilities (34.8 percent) and other disability types (34.8 percent), including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at 7.7 percent.