Yerushalayim Population Nears 900,000

There are 882,700 residents in Yerushalayim, according to the annual report released by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research in honor of Yom Yerushalayim, marked Sunday. Including all neighborhoods within city limits, 61 percent of the city’s population is Jewish, 26 percent is Muslim Arab, and 2 percent are Christian Arab. 1 percent does not classify itself as the member of any religion, the report said.

The biggest neighborhood in the city is Ramot (including Ramot Alon), with 46,140 residents recorded at the end of 2017. Next largest is Neve Yaakov, with 41,930 residents, followed by Gilo, with 30,900 residents. The largest Arab neighborhood in the city is Beit Hanina, with 39,210 resident, followed by A-Tur, where 26,460 people live.

Yerushalayim’s population grew 2 percent in 2017, compared to the number at the end of 2016, mostly due to natural increase. 24,200 babies were born in Yerushalayim in 2017 – 65 percent to Jewish families, and 35 percent to Arab families. Despite that, more people moved out of Yerushalayim in 2017 than moved in, with 17,700 seeking other places to live, compared to 9,800 new residents who moved there from other places. It should be noted, however, that Israel’s other large cities, including Haifa and Tel Aviv, lost more residents than they gained in 2017 due to “negative migration.”

Despite that, Yerushalyim remains one of Israel’s youngest cities. The median age of city residents is 23.8 years, far younger than the 29.8 median age of Israelis in general. The median age for Jews in the city is 25.7, compared to 32 nationally, while the Arab median age is 21.1, compared to 22.8 nationally. The city’s young residents have had a major impact on several neighborhoods, including Nachalat Shiva, where 43 percent of residents are between the ages of 20 and 34, and Zichron Tuvia, where 42 percent of residents are young.

According to the study, 34 percent of Yerushalayim residents age 20 and older consider themselves chareidi, while 33 percent consider themselves non-chareidi religious. Nationally, those figures are 9 percent and 23 percent respectively. Jews who consider themselves secular account for 34 percent of the population, compared to 86 percent in Tel Aviv and 83 percent in Haifa.