NII defines the family poverty line as being 50 percent of median family income after tax.
The total number of poor - some 1,651,300 people including 783,600 children under the age of 18 - is a slight increase on the 1,630,400 recorded in 2007.
Some NGOs in Israel are concerned that with the current global economic crisis more people will fall below the NII-defined poverty line in 2010.
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