Demographic transition among the Negev Beduin in Israel and its planning implications

The sedentarization of Beduin in Israel made it necessary for the authorities to channel the process into planned semi-urbanization. A forecast of future Beduin population size, however, did not consider the demographic transition and response theories within the process of change among the nomads. The present study demonstrates that the Beduin underwent a process of fertility increase before fertility decline, both of which were preceded by the process of mortality decline between the mid-1950s and the late-1970s. While mortality decline and fertility increase were the outcomes of economic growth, fertility decline is the outcome of social modernization. Both processes lead to decline in population growth rate. This reinterpretation of demographic processes has important implications for planning towns for the Beduin society in terms of improvement in their social well-being on their path from nomadism to semi-urbanization.