A socio-demographic profile of southern Israel

• Published date: 08 June 2021
• Author: Arutz Sheva Staff
• Date: 08 June 2021

A new Taub Center study conducted by Prof. Alex Weinreb maps out residents of the Negev by population group, type of settlement, household structure, and more. The study finds that the population of the south, particularly the Arab population, has been growing at a faster rate than the rest of the country, and that positive migration to the south now largely offsets negative migration from the region.

In addition, the share of those with an academic degree in the south is rising and educational inequality between Jews and Arabs is rapidly declining. The study also finds that, in general, residents of the south express higher economic satisfaction than residents in other regions of the country and are less likely to leave the region. However, the residents also indicate a lack of satisfaction with the state of local infrastructure, and gaps in education and employment remain between the Southern District and other parts of the country.

Only some of the government decisions concerning investment and development in the Southern District have been implemented

The Southern District is the largest district in Israel and includes over half of the land in the country. The population of the south consists of various groups, including Jews, Muslims, and "others" (immigrants not classified as Jews).

In recent decades, the Israeli government has invested considerable resources in the South, relocating military bases and improving transportation and higher education infrastructure. In 2005, the national strategic plan for the development of the Negev established a number of goals to be implemented by 2015, including increasing the population of the south, increasing the number of employed persons, reducing the gap in average per capita income relative to other parts of the country, and increasing the share of students in higher education. Most of these larger goals were achieved.

Relocating military bases to the Southern District has been a key instrument for developing the region, as it has both encouraged the migration of workers and families with high social capital to the south and necessitated developing and upgrading infrastructure. Transportation infrastructure has also developed substantially, improving mobility between southern localities and the rest of the country, and an international airport has even been opened in the district.

Investment in higher education in the south has yielded a particularly high return, resulting in the opening of additional institutions and study tracks, and has led to an increase of about 58% in the number of undergraduate students in the area– an increase about 7% greater than the national average. The budget allocated for this purpose has also increased and in 2019-2020 the Committee for Planning and Budgeting (VaTaT) increased the budget...