 According to Khazzoom, there was a significant relationship between ethnicity and the likelihood of being placed in a development town, with many of the small number of Ashkenazi Jews sent to the towns returning to central Israel.By the 1960s and 1970s, 85–90 percent of development town residents were Mizrahi Jews, leading to an association between Mizrahi identity, peripheral location, and economic deprivation.A high proportion of the population was also religious or traditional, with a 2003 survey showing that 39% of residents would rather Israel be run more by halakhic law.