Present Housing Needs in Palestine: The Zionist/Jewish Community before 1948 (Nakba), British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 787. Chapter XVIII: Town Planning and The Problem of Housing : Section 2: Increase in The Number of Family Units

CHAPTER XVIII.

A. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY.

(1). The natural increase of population.

18. The married couple being the foundation of the normal family unit or household, the unit of need for housing derives from the increase of married couples rather than from the increase in population. The marriage statistics suitably adjusted will, therefore, be taken as the basis of our estimate of housing needs. In the absence of more detailed information it has been assumed that the gross increase in the number of family units requiring housing accommodation is equal to the number of marriages less the number of divorces. This figure is adjusted by a further reduction which is introduced to allow for marriages dissolved by the death of one or other of the marriage partners. The adjustment is made by deducting from the figure for net marriages (i.e., marriages less divorces) 50% of the estimated number of deaths of marriage partners. It is to be noted that, in the case of the Jewish community, the number of divorces during the years immediately preceding the war was abnormally high, probably owing to the dissolution of marriages of immigrants who had entered into temporary marriage contracts for the purpose of evading the immigration regulations.

19. The figures for the number of marriages and divorces have been taken from the Statistical Abstracts of Palestine but, in the absence of published figures for 1945, the figures for that year have been estimated on the basis of the figures for the first quarter of 1945. In subsequent calculations it will be assumed that the housing accommodation required per family unit consists of two room units, that is to say, 54 square metres of built-up area comprising two rooms, an entrance hall, kitchen, bathroom and W.C. Table 1 shows for the period 1936-1945 the increase in the number of family units in the Jewish section of the population.

Table 1.

INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF FAMILY UNITS.

1936 I 1987 I 1958 I 1989 I l!UO I 1941 / 194~ 19-14 I 1g45 1;~::~~!

Number of marriages

t,U5 4,805 4,465 5,129 5,890 6,48~ 6,856 5,244 4,84.2 5,940 58,698

Less number of divorcee 2,261 2,781 2,229 2,115 1,982 1,597 1,493 I,9U 1,228 1,156 18,118

Len 501)) death& of

number of families 1,58' 1,92' 1,586 ~.SU S,108 S,985 3,968 8,029 2,71' 8,88, 27,,95

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