JERUSALEM, Nov 2, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Israel's National Insurance Institute reported 1.65 million Israelis are poor and named Jerusalem the country's poorest city.

Details of the annual report released Monday were based on 2008 statistics.

While the report noted a decrease in the number of poor compared with 2007, it said 783,600 children were among the total number of Israelis found to be suffering from poverty. One in four Israelis are living in poverty, Ynetnews.com said.

The statistics showed 35.8 percent of children lived in poverty in 2006. That percentage fell to 34.2 percent in 2007 and 34 percent in 2008, Maariv said.

The report also noted the percentage of poor single-parent families dropped to 28.8 percent, and noted a 2-point drop in the percentage of poor Arab families from 51.4 percent in 2007 to 49.4 percent in 2008, the Hebrew language newspaper said. There was no change in the percentage of poor elderly citizens, the report said, noting they made up 22.7 percent of the country's 1.65 million poor.

The report said Jerusalem is the country's poorest city, with 32.3 percent of the city's 760,800 residents classed as poor. Jerusalem has 10 percent of the country's population, data released by the Jerusalem Center for Israeli Studies showed.

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