Ma’ale Adumim: Young, Smart, and Dynamic

Ma’ale Adumim’s first residents began moving into permanent housing during 1982. One year later, there were already 3,500 residents living here, a figure that has increased tenfold in less than three decades. Here’s the population breakdown by year:

Year *    1983    1995    2005    2006    2008    2010

Pop           3.5       18      30.2    31.8    33.4     35
in 1000s

Senior aged 65+ have reason to feel lost in the crowd. While they make up 5.8% of the population, children aged between 0-19 outnumber them almost 7 to 1 (39.9%). Of these, 20.3% are kids under the age of 10. Young adults (20-44 years) make up another 34.4%, while older adults (45-64) account for the remaining 19.9%.

Post-1990 olim make up 15.6% of the population.

Ma’ale Adumim 12th graders outperform their Israeli peers when it comes to earning a matriculation diploma by 61.6% to 54.2% (Hebrew education stats).

Ma’ale Adumim is rated 6 on a scale of 1-10 on the national socio-economic test. The average salary (2007) in Ma’ale Adumim was NIS 6915, while the national average was NIS 6743.

I’m sure the Adumim bloc’s 23 founding families never imagined during their wildest discussions around the electric generators during that cold, first Hanukka (1975) in Givat Hameyasdim just how successful their experiment in community building would become. By the way, did you know there were fierce debates over just what type of community they would be forming? Some wanted a village, with firm criteron for membership. Others dreamed of a city of 50,000, built according to well-thought-out plans. But that’s a story for another time…