The Southern District is one of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

's six administrative districts

Districts of Israel

There are six main administrative districts of Israel, known in Hebrew as mehozot and fifteen sub-districts known as nafot...

, and is the largest in terms of land area as well as the most sparsely populated. It covers most of the Negev

Negev

The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...

 desert, as well as the Arabah

Arabah

The Arabah , also known as Aravah, is a section of the Great Rift Valley running in a north-south orientation between the southern end of the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea and continuing further south where it ends at the Gulf of Aqaba. It includes most of the border between Israel to the...

 valley. The population of the Southern District is 1,002,400. It is 86% Jewish and 14% Arab (mostly Muslim). The district capital is Beersheba

Beersheba

Beersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....

, whilst the largest city is Ashdod. Beersheba's dormitory towns of Omer

Omer, Israel

Omer is a town in the South District of Israel, bordering Beersheba. It is located on Highway 60, between Beersheba and the Shoket Junction. Pini Badash has served as head of its local council since 1990....

, Meitar

Meitar

Meitar is a small local council north-east of Beersheba, in Israel's Southern District. The town lies on Highway 60 just south of the Green Line on the southern edge of Mount Hebron, alongside the Yatir Forest. Meitar was founded in 1984....

, and Lehavim

Lehavim

Lehavim is a town in the Southern District of Israel, in the northern Negev desert. Founded in 1983, it is located 15 km north of Beersheba. In 2009, the population was 6,000. -History:...

 are all relatively affluent, whilst the development town

Development town

Development town is a term used to refer to the new settlements that were built in Israel during the 1950s in order to provide permanent housing to a large influx of Jewish refugees from Arab countries, Holocaust survivors from Europe and new immigrants , who arrived to the newly established State...

s (including Sderot

Sderot

Sderot is a western Negev city in the Southern District of Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 20,700. The city has been an ongoing target of Qassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip...

, Netivot

Netivot

Netivot is a city in the Southern District of Israel in Israel. At the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 26,700. It was founded in 1956 as a development town along with Sderot to the north, and Ofakim to the south...

, and Ofakim) and the seven Bedouin

Negev Bedouins

The Negev Bedouin are traditionally pastoral semi-nomadic Arab tribes indigenous to the Negev region in Israel, who hold close ties to the Bedouin of the Sinai Peninsula. The move away from their traditional lifestyle in modern times has led to sedentarization.Estimated to number some 160,000,...

 cities are lower on the socio-economic scale.