1.1Number of Households and Their Size Overview for 2015
A. MAIN FINDINGS[1]
1.Characteristics of Households[2]
1.1Number of Households and their Size – Overview for 2015
The trend of growth in the number of private households continued in 2015. That year, there were 2,411,700 households in Israel – an increase of 2% compared with 2014. This growth rate issimilar to the growth rate of the general population.
With regard to population group, 1,993,200 (nearly 83% of all households) were headed by Jews, and 357,400 (nearly 14%) by Arabs. The rest of the households (61,100, 3%) were headed by “Others”.[3]
The average number of persons per household in Israel was 3.32. The average number of persons per household in the Jewish population was 3.12, compared with 4.58 in the Arab population.
1.2Changes in the Number and Size of Households – 1960–2015
As noted, the number of households in Israel in 2015 totalled approximately 2.4 million. By contrast, in 1960 their number was estimated at only 549,000.[4] Concurrently, the average number of persons per household decreased, from 3.9 in 1960 to 3.3 in2015.
Since1995, the rate of growth in the number of households over the years was greater than the corresponding rate in the population of Israel. The causes for this trend include changes that have occurred in the composition and size of households, which reflect social and demographic processes, such as an increase in the percentage of young never-married persons living away from their parents, as well as changes in patterns of marriage and fertility. The increase in the relative proportion of person aged 65 and over and of immigrants of 1990 and after – two groups characterized by smaller households compared to the rest of the population – also contributed to the changes in the composition and size of households.
Historic changes in the size of Jewish households
Among the Jewish population, the percentage of one-person households has doubled – from 10% in 1960, to 20% in 2015. During that same period, there was a substantial decline in the proportion of large households with seven or more persons, from 9% to 4%. These changes are reflected in the decline that occurred in the average number of persons per household during that period, from 3.8 to only 3.1.
Historic changes in the size of households of Arabs and Others[5]
During the 1960's and 1970's there was a rise in the average number of persons per household in this population (from 5.6 persons per household in 1960, to 6.5 persons in 1979). At the beginning of the 1980's a downward trend began in the average number of persons per household among Arabs and "Others", which reached 4.3 persons per household in 2015.
The decline found in the 1990's can be partially attributed to the addition of households in the population of "Others" to the Arab households. This population, which mainly includes non-Jewish immigrants from the former USSR, is characterized by a lower fertility rate, and its households are smaller than those in the Arab population.
1.3Composition of Households
Most households in Israelwere family households(1.93 million households, approximately 80% of private households), in which at least one family[6] resided. The rest of the households (484,400) were non-family households, in most of which (91%) one person resided, and in the rest – several persons with no family relationship among them resided.
Among Jewish householdsapproximately 73% were one-family ones, approximately 3% were households with one family and others (who were not part of the nuclear family in that household – such as a parent with his child’s family, a person with his sibling’s family, etc.), and 2% households with two or more families. The rest of the Jewish households (22%) were non-family ones. Among Arab households, approximately 87% were one-family ones, 2% were households with one family and others, 4% were households with two or more families, and another 7% were non-family ones (approximately third of the proportion in the Jewish population).
Number of generations in the household[7]
In the Jewish population, 25% of family households had only one generation, 71% had two generations, and approximately 4% had three generations or more (see Table 7). However, in the Arab population, family households with only one generation were much less common – 9% (which resulted, among other reasons, from a relatively low number of couples who lived alone in a household, without children).86% of Arab family households had two generations, and the rest – 5% –three generations or more.
2.Composition of Families
Living with one’s family is the most common form of residence. Approximately 89% of the Jewish population, and approximately 97% of the Arab population, aged 15 and over, lived with their nuclear families.
Most families (91%) lived alone in the household, with no others (who were not part of the family), and with no additional family in the household.
There were approximately 1.99 million families in Israel in 2015. The most common type of family (63% of all families) had a traditional composition – i.e., a couple with at least one child (of all ages). Families of a couple with no children constituted 24% of all families, and approximately 12% were lone-parent families. A small number of families were those of siblings without spouses or children of their own, or grandparents and grandchildren.
The average number of persons per family was 3.56 in the Jewish population and 4.59 in the Arab one. In Jewish families with children at all ages, there was an average of one child less per family than among Arabfamilies (2.3 compared with 3.0, respectively – see Table 18); this reflects mainly the younger age at marriage among Arabs, and the differences in fertility rates between the Jewish and Arab populations.
2.1 Couples without Children
The number of couples in Israel in 2015 was estimated at 1,728,600. Approximately 28% of all couples were without children in the household, and the rest – approximately 72% – were with children (at all ages). Most couples without children are adult and have passed the age of fertility and raising children. Among Jews there was a higher percentage of couples without children, out of the total number of couples – approximately 27%, compared with 10% among Arabs. One of the reasons for this is the fact that the Jewish population is older than the Arab one.
2.2Families with Children (of All Ages)
Couples with children
The percentage of couples with children whose youngest child was up to 17, out of the total number of families with children, was much higher among Arabs than among Jews (73% compared with 63%, respectively). This was mainly due to the higher fertility rate of the Arab population, compared to the Jewish one.
Lone-Parent Families
Lone-parent families with children (at all ages) constituted approximately 12% of all families, 16% of families with children, and approximately 11% of families in which the youngest child’s age was up to 17. Altogether, there were 116,900 lone-parent families in which the youngest child’s age was up to 17 (see Table 14).
Lone-Parent Families with Children up to Age 17, by Main Characteristics
Population group
Of all Jewish families with children up to age 17, 11% are lone-parent families, compared with 7% among Arab ones (as the data in Table 20 indicate). The differences result mainly from the higher divorce rate among the Jewish population in comparison with the Arab one.
Sex of parent
In approximately 91% of lone-parent families in which the youngest child’s age is up to 17, the parent is the mother, and in the rest – the father (see Table 30).
Parent’s marital status
In 54% of lone-parent families in which the youngest child’s age is up to 17 the parent is divorced; in approximately 10% the parent is widowed; and in 19% the parent has never married. In the rest of the families (17%) the parent is married but lives separately.[8] In the Jewish population,the most common marital status of a lone-parent is divorced (58%), whereas among Arabs it is married but lives separately (37%).
Children in lone-parent families
Approximately 209,800children up to age 17, which constitutes approximately 8% of all children in this age group, live in lone-parent families (see Tables 22, 34); 92% of them live with their mothers. Approximately one-third of children up to age 17 live in lone-parent families without additional siblings up to age17 in the household, compared with 11% of the children who live with a pair of parents.
2.3Cohabitation
There were 87,000 unmarried couples in Israel, which constituted5% of the total number of couples, and approximately 4% of the total number of families.
Age
The age composition of cohabiting couples was younger than that of married couples (see Tables 26, 27). Approximately 45% of the men and women living together without being married were less than 35 years of age, and a large proportion were aged 25–29.
Marital status
Approximately 64% of all those cohabiting were single, approximately 30% of them were divorced, 5% widowed, and the rest married to other spouses but did not live with them.
Religion
95% of all cohabiting couples were Jews,[9] compared with 79% of the married couples.
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[1]The data in this chapter relate to 2015, unless otherwise stated.
[2]The data on households include only private ones, see Chapter B: “Definitions, Classifications and Explanations”, Section 3: “Households”.
[3]See definition of “Religion/Population Group” in Chapter B: “Definitions, Classifications and Explanations”.
[4]In 1960, the data also included Bedouins in the South and kibbutzim.
[5]Up to the beginning of the 1990's, the non-Jewish population (see definition of “Religion/Population group” in Chapter B: “Definitions, Classifications and Explanations”, Section 14) includedmainly the Arab population. Following the wave of immigration in the 1990's, populations that are not Arab (non-Arab Christians or those not classified by religion) were added to the non-Jewish population. Up to 2000 it was impossible to completely separate Arab households from non-Jewish ones that are not Arab (“Others”). This distinction only became possible in the Labour Force Survey as of 2001. That year, approximately 83% of all non-Jewish households were Arab, and the rest – approximately 17% – Others. As of 2001 data, a distinction has been made in the publication between the three population groups: Jews, Arabs, and Others.
[6]See definition of “Family” in Chapter B: “Definitions, Classifications and Explanations”, Section 9.
[7]See definition of “Number of generations in a household” in Chapter. B: “Definitions, Classifications and Explanations”, Section 7.
[8]Including families in which the parent was married, but his/her spouse was not present in the household, or did not belong to the survey population (see definition of “Survey Population”, Chapter B: “Definitions, Classifications and Explanations”). In 2015, these families constituted approximately 6% of all lone-parent families with children of all ages, and approximately 10% of all lone-parent families with children up to age 17.
[9]The rest of the unmarried couples were mainly couples of “Others” (see in Chapter B: “Definitions, Classifications and Explanations”, Section 14: “Religion/Population group”).