Because of the corona: a negative record for residents leaving Jerusalem.

But where are they going?

The negative migration balance from the capital reached a peak of about 11,000 inhabitants.

However, 39% of those leaving move to localities around the city, making it the second largest metropolis in Israel.

Yael Friedson

26/05/2022

Thursday, May 26, 2022, 6 p.m.

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The population of the Jewish population is higher than that of the Arabs.

The streets of Jerusalem (Photo: Flash 90, Olivia Fitoussi)

A record number of residents left their homes in Jerusalem last year, with about 11,000 people immigrating from outside the city, the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Studies announced today (Thursday).

What is the reason for the abandonment and where did most of the residents go?

As every year, the institute publishes the "Statistical Abstract of Jerusalem 2022", which reviews the demographic, economic and social trends in the city.

According to the yearbook, one in ten Israelis is a Jerusalemite: the capital of Israel continues to maintain its status as the largest city in the country - at the end of 2020 it had 951,100 residents, who constituted 10% of the population in the country.

However, the negative migration balance stood at a negative peak of -10,900, apparently under the influence of the corona.

The natural increase in the natural population of the Jewish population in Jerusalem (22.9 per thousand inhabitants) is higher than that of the Arab population in the city (20.9).

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To the full article

According to the yearbook data, in 2021, 11,000 new residents moved to Jerusalem from other localities and 18,800 left it and moved to other localities, and the negative migration balance was 10,900.

This is an increase compared to the negative migration balance in 2020, and stood at -7,800.

The migration balance this year was slightly lower compared to 2019 (-8,200) but higher compared to 2018-2017 (-6,000).

The institute's researchers speculate that the effects of the corona, such as distance learning, have influenced changes in the extent of migration this year.

The researchers note that 38% of those who leave Jerusalem have moved to other localities in the Jerusalem metropolitan area, live in its vicinity and consider it the center of their lives, and indicate that Jerusalem is the second largest metropolis in Israel.

"The migration of residents from Jerusalem (the main city) to the metropolitan localities is not unique to Jerusalem and is characteristic of large cities, whether it is Tel Aviv or the major cities in the world," said Yair Assaf-Shapira, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Studies and editor of the Jerusalem Statistical Abstract.

"This trend can be seen as a natural development of the city, and therefore also requires the construction of infrastructure that can serve the residents of the metropolis such as convenient access roads and transportation, job creation and more."

Immigrants continue to work in the capital

According to the data, as of the beginning of 2021, the Jerusalem metropolitan area included 86 localities and 1,373,000 residents.

951,100 of them lived in the city of Jerusalem, the core of the metropolis (70%) and 421,900 lived in the outer ring (30%).

The population of the Jerusalem metropolitan area has grown in recent years (2020-2015) at an average rate of 2.3% every year.

During this period, Jerusalem grew by 1.9% every year, and the outer ring of the metropolis by 3.3%.

A particularly accelerated growth rate was recorded in the city of Beit Shemesh (whose population has increased by 29,000 in these years - an average increase of 5.0% per year) as well as in the locality of Tzur Hadassah (9.4% annually).

Another figure that emerges is that about 83.8 thousand employed people work in Jerusalem and live outside it in 2021, compared to 79.1 thousand in 2019 - that is, the residents who left for localities around Jerusalem continue to work in the city.

The circumference of the passage characterizes large cities.

Coffee kiosk in Tel Aviv (Photo: ShutterStock)

Jerusalem is the city with the largest ultra-Orthodox population in Israel, the largest Arab population in Israel (19% of Israeli Arabs) and continues to be one of the poorest cities in Israel: over half of the city's children live below the poverty line.

In 2020, 38% of families in Jerusalem (123,100), 43% of persons (416,600) and 53% of children (206,900) lived below the poverty line.

The percentage of children living below the poverty line is higher than the percentage of families living below the poverty line, that is - poverty is a phenomenon that is particularly prevalent among large families.

The fact that only 26% of Arab women participate in the labor market, and only 45% of ultra-Orthodox men work, exacerbates poverty in these sectors.

The salary in Jerusalem is also lower than the average in the rest of the country: the average salary per month of an employee in Jerusalem was NIS 9,600, compared to NIS 11,500 in Israel.

Dr. David Koren, Director General of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Studies, said: "The report presents a broad and in-depth picture of Jerusalem and, together with the other studies of the Institute, That the city embodies, with the aim of improving the quality of life of all the city's residents. "

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