About Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is the second largest and the second most populous city in Israel. The city that is located north-west from Jerusalem on the Israeli Mediterranean coast covers an area of 20 square miles and has a population of 404,000. The larger metropolitan area (called the Gush Dan), however, is home to over 3.3 million people. Although the city is widely known simply as Tel Aviv, it is officially called Tel Aviv-Jaffa because it was merged with Jaffa into a single municipality in 1950.

Tel Aviv

History of Tel Aviv was greatly influenced by the ancient port of Jaffa. In the late 19th century, the Jewish community in Jaffa decided to create a Hebrew urban centre outside Jaffa and founded a settlement on the Jaffa’s outskirts that became the core of today’s Tel Aviv. Soon, the new Jewish city surpassed the nearby Jaffa in both commercial activity and population. From 1920 to 1925, Tel Aviv’s population grew from 2,000 to 34,000. The trend of population growth and economic development continued and at the time Israel declared independence, the city had a population of about 200,000. Tel Aviv’s population peaked in the early 1960s when it reached 390,000 but then the trend turned the other way around. Until the late 1980s, Tel Aviv’s population was declining. The arrival of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and the rise of the city as the business hub of Israel and the centre of the high-tech industries in the early 1990s again made Tel Aviv one of the fasted growing cities. By 2025, Tel Aviv’s population is expected to reach 450,000.

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv may not be Israel’s premium tourist location but its reputation as “the city that never sleeps”, the warm climate and spectacular beaches which are ranked in the very top of world’s best destinations made the city a tourist hotspot that is visited by over 2.5 million people each year. Tel Aviv’s landmarks cannot rival those in Jerusalem, however, the Old Jaffa, the UNESCO designated White City and other architectural landmarks, rich cultural scene, thriving night life and cosmopolitan lifestyle make it a very special place, unlike any other Israel’s city.

In addition to being the secular and cultural centre of Israel (Tel Aviv’s cultural scene surpasses that in Jerusalem, especially when it comes to performing arts), Tel Aviv is also known as the Israel’s business centre. It is the heart of the so-called Silicon Wadi which is very similar to the famous Silicon Valley in California and is behind only its Californian counterpart in importance. Israeli and international firms that operate from Tel Aviv are employing 13% of all workforce in Israel, while every second person working in banking and financial sector is living or commuting to Tel Aviv. In comparison to the rest of Israel, Tel Avivians have over 10% higher monthly income but they also have higher expenses because Tel Aviv is Israel’s most expensive place to live in.

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