Election campaigns tend to highlight the issues that capture media headlines. This annual Social Report, on the other hand, looks at longterm socio-economic processes: economic instability, one of whose
sources is the absence of a political agreement with the Palestinians; the growth of financial capital, which serves the interests of a small minority; reduced investment in the real economy, in which most
Israelis are employed, relative to other developed countries; deepening inequality between the income brackets, with a surge ahead by the highest percentile, the top one percent of earners; the inability to break the 50% barrier with regard to successful high school matriculation rates; greater household spending on health; and wide gaps in the standard of living for retired persons.
Most of the figures that appear in Israel: A Social Report are published by the Central Bureau of Statistics (hereinafter CBS) at a delay of one year; hence, the picture presented here relates primarily to 2011.
However, most of the tables and figures also provide data for the previous decade, 2001-2011, which allows for the identification of long-range processes.
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