One in four Israeli children living below the poverty line, annual report finds

Roughly two million people, or 21 percent of the population, were living below the poverty line in Israel in 2024, according to an annual National Insurance report published this morning.

This is an increase of 0.3% from 2023, the report for which was published in December 2024.

Of the two million Israelis living below the poverty line, 880,000 are children, the National Insurance report found.

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.

With around one in four children living in poverty, Israel has the second-highest rate of child poverty among OECD countries, after Costa Rica.

Poverty levels are highest in the ultra-Orthodox and Arab sectors, with 32.8% of Haredi households and 37.6% of Arab households falling below the minimum threshold. In total, these two communities make up 65.1% of Israelis living below the poverty line.

The war in Gaza, which began months earlier with the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel, contributed to the rising poverty levels in Israel, the report found. This could be for a variety of reasons, including long stretches of reserve duty resulting in the breadwinner’s prolonged absence from work or internal displacement for families close to the Gaza and Lebanon borders.