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Friday May 30, 1997

Jewish growth eases in capital, while Arab rate rises

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- The Jewish population's growth rate in Jerusalem is easing each year, and projections signal that by 2010, th
Jerusalem's total population at the end of 1996 stood at 603,000, of which 422,300, or 70 percent, were Jews and 180,000 were Ar

The statistics were released Monday by the Jerusalem Institute for Israeli Studies, in its annual Statistical Yearbook.

Projected figures for the year 2010 show a population of 817,500, with 251,000 Arabs and 214,000 ultra-religious Jews.

Although the figures show an increase in the ultra-religious birth rate, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert said that "in the year 2010, over 62 percent of the Jewish population will be [secular], which is assuring that the days when the [ultra-religious] will take over the city of Jerusalem are far off."

The city has been the scene of clashes between ultra-religious and secular Jews, most recently over the use of a major route, Bar Ilan Street, on Shabbat.

Meanwhile, the survey showed that the Jewish and Arab populations in areas of the city that Israel annexed after the Six-Day War are nearly equal in size.

According to the annual study, Arabs comprise 52 percent of eastern Jerusalem, while Jews make up 48 percent.

Jerusalem continues to be the most densely inhabited and poorest city as well.

In 1995, 37 percent of children living in the city were under the poverty line, compared to 23.2 percent in all of Israel.

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