ABSTRACT
The population of Israel today is more than four million, and approximately another million is added every decade. Thus by the early 1990s Israel will have five million people, and by the end of the century five and a half. Such a large population will need a great deal of land for dwellings, economic activity and circulation, especially since it will be more and more difficult to spread it over new areas in the Negev and Galilee. To scatter the population becomes harder every year; the trend is towards crowding more and more, mainly in the coastal plain and the areas which were historically the first settlement areas in the country. To the extent that it does scatter, it locates on the Golan Heights, and Judea-Samaria. Although there will be increased population in the Negev, it must be recognized that the coastal plain, where all fear overpopulation, will continue to absorb people, and become more and more densely populated. To maintain the situation of a third of the population in the Tel Aviv conurbation, would mean a third of five and a half million, or a million and a half to two million people, in the central part of the country.
