One in four Israelis 'below poverty line'

 
Total number of poor reaches 1,651,300 people including 783,600 children under age of 18.

 
TEL AVI - According to the 2008 Annual Poverty Report by Israel’s National Insurance Institute (NII), published in Hebrew on 2 November, one in four Israelis (one in three of them children) is living below the poverty line.

NII defines the family poverty line as being 50 percent of median family income after tax.

The total number of poor - some 1,651,300 people including 783,600 children under the age of 18 - is a slight increase on the 1,630,400 recorded in 2007.

Some NGOs in Israel are concerned that with the current global economic crisis more people will fall below the NII-defined poverty line in 2010.

© IRIN

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