The 2010 Social Survey

The past year has seen a trend towards an improvement in the “Social Confidence Index,” that is tempered by population differences. The survey found that in Israeli society, not surprisingly, the individual’s income and educational level impact to varying degrees the differences in feelings with regard to social confidence as well as other societal areas. There are also differences by level of religious observance where the ultra-Orthodox are clearly differentiated from the “secular.”

Overall public opinion is that social gaps are continuing and even widening, although this feeling does not bring widespread support for policies of affirmative action for weak populations. Within Israeli society, three groups stand out, each distinguished by its value system and its approach to central problems on the social economic agenda – Arab Israelis, the ultra-Orthodox, and the immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

This appears as a chapter in the Center’s annual publication State of the Nation Report 2010.