Israel and Alaska

I know this posting won't appeal to everyone, but I've been trying to get an empirical view of how Alaska and Israel are similar and different. A group at the School of Social Work here are leaders in using data to examine child trends. One of the faculty members gave me their recent publication in English. This got me started in looking at some comparative statistics. What follows is a series of tables looking at various aspects of the population in the United States, Alaska, and Israel.

For those of you who don't like data and tables, I'm sorry, but as Popeye said, "I am what I am."

The sources for these data can be found at the bottom of the page. You can certainly criticize this posting for using data selectively. However, my purpose is not to provide a comprehensive examination of the populations, but rather to understand some of the similarities and difference empirically, as opposed to the rhetoric I read and hear in the news media.

	USA	Alaska General Population	Alaska Alaska Natives	Israel General Population	Israel Jewish	Israel Arab
Median Age (years)	36.73	33.4 2	26.1 2	28.9 3	30.6 4	18.6 4

The young Arab population is partially explained by large family size. For Alaska Natives, it is partially explained by lower life expectancy.

	USA	Alaska General Population	Alaska Alaska Natives	Israel General Population	Israel Jewish	Israel Arab
Percentage of Population under age 18	25.5%1	29.8%2	36.1%2	33.2%1	30.3%1	48.7% 1
Life expectancy at birth (years)	78.13	76.76	69.55	80.01	78.7 males1 83.4 females1	74.9 males1 78.5 females1

The shocking number in this table is the low life expectancy of Alaska Natives compared to all the other groups. This pattern is also true for infant mortality (but not for low birth weight infants).

	USA	Alaska General Population	Alaska Alaska Natives	Israel General Population	Israel Jewish	Israel Arab
Percentage of newborns with low birth weight (<2500>	8.0%1	6.0%2	5.7%2	8.0%1
Infant Mortality (per 1000 live births)	6.87	6.77	10.17	5.01	5.38	6.68

Finally, examine the numbers on child poverty:

	USA	Alaska General Population	Alaska Alaska Natives	Israel General Population	Israel Jewish	Israel Arab
Children Living in Poverty	21.9%1	17%2	32%9	35.8%1	24.3%1	66.8%1

The poverty rate for Alaska Native children is almost twice the rate for the general population. Like Alaska Natives, one in three children in Israel live in poverty. 35.8% of the child population translates into approximately 840,000 children. However, if you are a Jewish child the likelihood of living in poverty is similar to the United States. Whereas if you are an Arab child there is a fairly high probability that you live in poverty.

Israel, like many western industrialized countries (not the United States) has a child allowance – an income transfer payment (a universal welfare benefit). These income transfer payments reduced the child poverty rate to 35.8%. Without the child allowance 41.3% of the children in Israel would live in poverty. As the book where this data comes from states, “every third child and more, lives below the poverty line. 2006 has seen a continued increase in the percentage of poor children among all children in Israel. This tendency is consistent and has persisted for nearly two decades” (Tzionit, Kimchi, Ben-Arieh, 2008, p.354).

Walking the streets of Jerusalem I was unaware of these poverty rates. There are fewer people panhandling than in Anchorage and I rarely see overt signs of homelessness. It could be that the people in poverty live elsewhere or it could be that poverty manifests itself differently in this culture.

Sources:

¹Tzionit, Y., Kimchi, M. & Ben-Arieh, A.(2008).The state of the child in Israel 2007: A statistical abstract.Jerusalem, Israel: Israel National Council for the Child.
² Alaska Department of Health and Social Services(2007).Alaska Health Care Data Book: Selected Measures 2007.Retrieved from: http://www.hss.state.ak.us/dph/Healthplanning/publications/healthcare/default.htm
³CIA, The World Factbook.Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
⁴Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, (2006).Press release. .Retrieved from: www.cbs.gov.il/hodaot2006n/11_06_280e.pdf
⁵ Parkinson, A. J.(2008). Commentary, The International Polar Year, 2007‚2008, An Opportunity to Focus on Infectious Diseases in Arctic Regions. Emerging infectious diseases.14 (1).Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/14/1/1.htm
⁶ Retrieved from: http://www.swivel.com/data_columns/show/2400482
⁷Kids Count Alaska 2006-2007 (notes rates are a 5 year average). Retrieved from: http://www.kidscount.alaska.edu/
⁸ Retrieved from: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7062
⁹ Retrieved from: http://www.nccp.org/tools/demographics/