Yair Assaf-Shapira

Yair Assaf-Shapira is a senior researcher and head of data analysis and services at the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, a role he began in 2021.

Yair has been working at the institute since 1999. He specializes in planning, data analysis and presentation, and GIS mapping. He gives lectures on trends in Jerusalem in the Institute’s training programs and events to various audiences. These audiences range from Israeli and foreign students to the most senior professionals, to whom he also serves as a consultant on complex data issues. 

Yair is one of the editors of the Jerusalem Statistical Yearbook, and specializes in making data accessible to the general public and policy makers alike, with an emphasis on the creation of interactive real-time data. Examples include the local Jerusalem and countrywide general elections, based on current data from public institutions, the foremost among them being Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

Yair is the editor of the Institute’s blog that was established in 2007, which is also published in local newspapers. The blog covers a wide range of topics but is always based on data- in the spirit of the well-known aphorism, “Without data you are just another person with an opinion.”

Yair holds a B.Arch degree in Architecture from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and an MA in Geography and Urban Planning from Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. He also does volunteer work on urban issues in social and community organizations.