In Judea and Samaria and in the Jordan Valley, 476,000 people live in 150 localities. • 72% of the residents are religious-national or ultra-Orthodox.
The locality is blessed.
The highest percentage increase in the number of inhabitants
Photography:
Joshua Joseph
Disappointment in the Yesha Council with data from the population in Judea and Samaria for 2020.
Although the rate of population growth in 2019 indicated an upward trend that corresponded with the rapid pace of construction in that year, 2020 is characterized by a continued trend in the last decade. Jordan is due to a shortage of new construction, despite the fact that the Civil Administration's Supreme Planning Council, which meets once a quarter, has in recent years advanced thousands of approvals for new housing units.
The data that reached Israel Today shows that the population of Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley currently has 476,033 residents in 150 localities.
An analysis of the data by the Yesha Council shows that the annual increase in the region's population in 2020 was 2.6%, compared with 3.4% in 2019. The latest data continues the declining trend of population growth in the last decade. If in 2012 there was a growth rate The population has been at a record high of 4.7%, since then every year there has been a decrease, except as stated in 2019, which was characterized by a slight increase.Despite the declining trend, the population growth rate in the areas mentioned above is still higher than the annual growth rate in Israel %.
There are not enough construction starts
Unlike last year, this year the increase in the number of people also decreased.
In the last decade the settlements have grown by an average of 14,783 inhabitants per year, with 50% being due to natural birth and fifty percent due to positive migration.
If in 2019 15,229 new residents joined, in 2020 12,132 joined.
This is the lowest number in many years, and an analysis of the data shows that 60% of the residents were added to the quorum as a result of natural birth and only 40% are as a result of positive immigration.
This indicates that there are not enough construction starts, whether due to bureaucracy or due to various barriers, and what has already been built is done at a slow pace that does not provide a satisfactory answer.
Unlike previous years, when equality was maintained between the secular, religious-national and ultra-Orthodox population in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, this year there is a change in the relative size of each of them.
The secular population numbers 28% of the total population, while the national-religious and ultra-Orthodox population each make up 36% of the total population.
The locality with the highest growth rate this year is Baruchin in Samaria with 18.4.
The chairman of the Yesha Council, David Elhayani, said: "We are now suffering from the consequences of stopping the planning that was until four years ago. From the rest of the country, however, there is a consistent and alarming decline, and the dozens of localities in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, which are not regulated and cannot continue to develop as they would like, affect this figure.
"Arranging the young settlement will ensure the advancement of the settlement and its flourishing. However, we will not stop striving for the vision of the Yesha Council for a million residents in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley and the application of sovereignty in the region," Elhayani added. Israel".
