President Reuven Rivlin on Monday received the 2020 Statistical Yearbook of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, and noted that Jerusalem is “a microcosm of our existence, its population a representation of the demographic diversity of the state of Israel, we must find a way to create a conversation, to connect, to build partnerships.”
On the occasion of this week’s celebration of Jerusalem Liberation day, Selected statistics for 2019 from the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research:
* Jerusalem is the largest Jewish city in Israel with 569,900 Jewish and other residents, and the largest Arab city in Israel with 349,600 Arab residents.
* For the second consecutive year, Jerusalem experiences negative migration of -6000, the lowest level for a decade. Of those leaving the city, 46% have left for communities in the Jerusalem metropolitan area.
* The number of those moving to Jerusalem is the highest ever: 12,800 people.
* There is a wage differential of 20% between men and women in Jerusalem, as opposed to 33% nationally, 32% in Tel Aviv-Yafo and 35% in Haifa.
* 1.26 million tourists stayed Jerusalem during the past year, spending a total of 4.17 million nights in the city.
The report was presented to the president by JIPP chairman Dan Halperin and Director-General Lior Schillat, who spoke about its main findings. The yearbook includes findings from the end of 2018 until the end of 2019.
At the beginning of his remarks, the president thanked the staff of the Jerusalem Institute for their dedicated work, saying, “The Statistical Yearbook published by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research deals with all aspects and all neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Eastern and western, new and old, religious and secular, Jewish and Arab. This is the real Jerusalem, lest we forget it – street-level Jerusalem.”
“As noted in the Yearbook, Jerusalem is the largest ultra-Orthodox city, and also the city with the largest Arab population. Jerusalem is also ‘young demographically: the percentage of young people in Jerusalem is large, in part as a result of Arab and Ultra-orthodox growth in numbers. These young people are our future,” he continued.
“Jerusalem is a microcosm of our existence here, its population a representation of the demographic diversity of the state of Israel. We must find a way to create a conversation, to connect, to build partnerships. I thank the Jerusalem Institute staff for their dedicated work to depict our reality. Their ongoing and determined efforts to understand our reality and to make it accessible to the public are extremely important. Thank you.”
Director-General of JIPP, Lior Schillat said: “The demographic findings we are publishing today in the Jerusalem Yearbook show that Jerusalem today is a preview of the demographic forecasts for Israel in two or three decades. In that sense, Jerusalem can be a kind of ‘national laboratory’ for President Rivlin’s ‘four tribes’ concept. Jerusalem offers us an opportunity to create new partnership and forget old paradigms in order to lead Israel to a better reality for all its citizens.”