Roughly two million people, including 880,000 children and 150,000 elderly citizens, were living below the poverty line in Israel in 2024, according to an annual National Insurance report published on Friday morning.

Making up 21 percent of the population, the figure marks an increase of 0.3% from 2023, the report for which was published in December 2024. The rate of children living in poverty is at 28%, slightly worse than the 27.9% recorded a year earlier.

With around one in four children living in poverty, Israel has the second-highest rate of child poverty among OECD countries, after Costa Rica. However, the rate of food insecurity suffered by children in Israel dropped from 36% in 2023 to 31.7% in 2024.

In total, 28.1% of the population suffered from food insecurity, with 9.9% suffering from severe levels.

A single person who earns less than NIS 3,547 per month before taxes is considered to be living below the poverty line. The threshold for a couple to be considered as such is NIS 7,095, and for a family with three children, it rises to NIS 13,303.

The report noted that having at least one breadwinner in the household is not enough to lift a family out of poverty: “Poverty among families with breadwinners has become an increasingly common phenomenon.”

“This is due, among other things, to the........

© The Times of Israel