The Israeli government Central Bureau of Statistics released information about children in Israel in honor of International Children's Day, November 18-25 Cheshvan.
At the end of 2013, there were 2,682,000 children under seventeen, constituting one third of the population, of which 1,895,000 (70.6%) were Jews, 707,000 Arabs (26.4%) and another 80,000 (3%) categorized as `others', that is, without religion or as non-Arab Christians. 97% of the children were Israeli-born and 78% of them were born to parents born in Israel.
The proportion of Jewish births rose sharply since the year 2000, as the number of births of all other ethnic groups fell slightly, while the number of Jewish births rose sharply. In 2000, there were about 92,000 Jewish births (67% of the total) and in 2013 there were about 127,000 Jewish births which were about 74% of the total. In 2000, the average Arab woman was expected to have 4.3 children over her lifetime, and the average Jewish woman 2.6 children. In 2013 these figures converged sharply, as Arab women were expected to have 3.15 children over their lifetimes, and Jewish women to have 3.05 children. The trend is our friend.
The most popular name for a boy in 2013 was Mohammed since 15.7% of the Arab boys born were given that name, which was 1.7% of all those born that year. Surprisingly, the second most popular name was Yosef for an interesting reason: it is a name used by all ethnic groups in Israel, Jews, Moslems, Druse and Christians. It was the fourth most popular name among both Jews and Arabs. The third most popular name in Israel was Noam.
Almost every second resident of Jerusalem (40%) and Bnei Brak (46%) is under eighteen, a figure which shows that children constitute half of the chareidi population. In Bat Yam and Tel Aviv, for example, only one of five residents is under 18. Beitar Illit has the highest ratio of children, with 63.8% under 18 and second in line is Modi'in Illit with 63%. Elad had 60.6%. The impact of chareidi fertility (bli ayin hora) is beginning to make itself more evident as the absolute number of chareidim grows and becomes a larger proportion of the total population.
The average number of children up to 17 of households with children was 2.42. From the large cities of 100,000 residents and up, the highest average of children up to 17 was Bnei Brak (3.41) and Jerusalem (3.06). In Bat Yam the average was the lowest, with only 1.74 per family.
