Beit Shemesh has the largest number of children per family

At the end of 2018, a total of 2.960 million children (0-17) lived in Israel.

These children made up 33% of the country's total population, Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics said Monday morning.

A full 2.131 million of the children (72%) are Jews, while 731,000 were Arabs (24.7%) and another 98,000 (3.3%) were "other" - a label used to include non-Arab Christians and other groups not identified by religion.

Of large cities with over 100,000 residents, Jerusalem had the greatest percentage of children, at 39%. In Haifa, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, and Bat Yam, children represented approximately one-fifth of the city's population.

Israel had an average of 2.43 children per household in 2018, and Beit Shemesh had the highest number of children per household, at 3.67. 

In second place was Bnei Brak, with 3.50 children per household, followed by Jerusalem with 2.99 children per household. Tel Aviv-Yafo came in last, with just 1.87 children per household.

A full 18% of children under age 17 lived in a household with no other children of any age. Nineteen percent of these children were Jews, while 11% were Arabs. Thirty percent of the families were immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

A total 184,370 babies were born in 2018, with an average of 3.09 children per woman.

Eighty-eight percent of children under age 17 live in two-parent homes, while 12% live in one-parent homes. Most of the single-parent homes (87%) were headed by an unattached mother.