Israel emerged as the most advanced country in the Near East in the first world-wide social survey made by the United Nations. The results of the survey published today bring out the fact that “great inequality in the distribution of wealth” and “an extremely low living standard” of the majority of the people prevail in the Near Eastern countries.
Israel differs widely from the other countries in the region, the report emphasizes. It points out that the Jewish State has the largest number of doctors for its size of any country in the world-one physician for every 318 people.” This compares with Iran’s one doctor for every 63,000 inhabitants,” the report says.
“Israel is unique,” the report continues, “in that a high proportion of the rural population live in settlements organized entirely on cooperative lines; about 45 percent of the population is covered by these and other types of cooperatives.”
As for the rest of the population, most of it is concentrated in cities, the report says. “Israeli has the highest urban population in the area with 50 percent of its people living in towns, compared with less than 10 percent on the Arabian peninsula.”
A tabulation in the report shows that Israel has by far the largest number of newspapers and radio sets: 235 daily newspapers and 123 radio sets per 1,000 people. Next is Cyprus, which is included in the “Middle East” countries in the report, with 86 newspapers and 24 radio sets per 1,000.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
