Jewish population by country (Redirected from List of urban areas by Jewish population)

Jews and those of sufficient Jewish descent to be eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return by country in proportion to the general population (per million people in each country, 2018)

The percentage of the eligible Jewish population that is living in each country (top 13, 2018)

  United States (51%)
  Israel (30%)
  France (3%)
  Canada (3%)
  Russia (3%)
  Argentina (1%)
  Germany (1%)
  Australia (1%)
  Brazil (1%)
  Mexico (1%)
  Ukraine (1%)
  Hungary (1%)
 Other (1%)

As of 2023, the world's core Jewish population (those identifying as Jews above all else) was estimated at 15.7 million, which is approximately 0.2% of the 8 billion worldwide population. Israel hosts the largest core Jewish population in the world with 7.2 million, followed by the United States with 6.3 million. Other countries with core Jewish populations above 100,000 include France (440,000), Canada (398,000), the United Kingdom (312,000), Argentina (171,000), Russia (132,000), Germany (125,000), and Australia (117,200). The number of Jews worldwide rises to 18 million with the addition of the "connected" Jewish population, including those who say they are partly Jewish or that have Jewish backgrounds from at least one Jewish parent, and rises again to 21 million with the addition of the "enlarged" Jewish population, including those who say they have Jewish backgrounds but no Jewish parents and all non-Jewish household members who live with Jews. Counting all those who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under Israel's Law of Return, in addition to Israeli Jews, raised the total to 25.5 million.

Two countries account for 81% of those recognised as Jews or of sufficient Jewish ancestry to be eligible for citizenship in Israel under its Law of Return: the United States with 51% and Israel with 30% (including the West Bank with 2%). An additional 16% is split between France (3%), Canada (3%), Russia (3%), the United Kingdom (2%), Argentina (1%), Germany (1%), Ukraine (1%), Brazil (1%), Australia (1%), and Hungary (1%), while the remaining 3% are spread around approximately 98 other countries and territories with less than 0.5% each. With over 7 million Jews, Israel is the only Jewish-majority country and the only explicitly Jewish state.

In 1939, the core Jewish population reached its historical peak of 17 million. Due to the murder of approximately six million Jews during the Holocaust, this number was reduced to 11 million by 1945. The population grew to around 13 million by the 1970s and then recorded almost no growth until around 2005, due to low fertility rates and assimilation of Jews. From 2005 to 2018, the world's Jewish population grew 0.63% annually on average, while world population overall grew 1.1% annually in the same period. This increase primarily reflected the rapid growth of Haredi and some Orthodox sectors, who remain a growing proportion of Jews.

Trends

 Israel

Recent Jewish population dynamics are characterized by continued steady increase in the Israeli Jewish population and flat or declining numbers in other countries (the diaspora). Jewish immigration to Palestine began in earnest following the 1839 Tanzimat reforms; between 1840 and 1880, the Jewish population of Palestine rose from 9,000 to 23,000. In the late 19th century, 99.7% of the world's Jews lived outside the region, with Jews representing 2–5% of the population of the Palestine region. Through the first five phases of Aliyah, the Jewish population rose to 630,000 by the inception of the state of Israel in 1948. By 2014 this had risen to 6,135,000, while the population of the diaspora has dropped from 10.5 to 8.1 million over the same period. Current Israeli Jewish demographics are characterized by a relatively high fertility rate of 3 children per woman and a stable age distribution. The overall growth rate of Jews in Israel is 1.7% annually. The diaspora countries, by contrast, have low Jewish birth rates, an increasingly elderly age composition, and a negative balance of people leaving Judaism versus those joining. Immigration trends also favour Israel ahead of diaspora countries. The Jewish state has a positive immigration balance (called aliyah in Hebrew). Israel saw its Jewish numbers significantly buoyed by a million-strong wave of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, and immigration growth has been steady (in the low tens of thousands) since then.

Rest of the world

In general, the modern English-speaking world has seen an increase in its share of the diaspora since the Holocaust and the foundation of Israel, while historic diaspora Jewish populations in Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East have significantly declined or disappeared. France continues to be home to the world's third largest Jewish community, at around 500,000, but has shown an increasingly negative trend. As a long-term trend, intermarriage has reduced its "core" Jewish population and increased its "connected" and "enlarged" Jewish populations. More recently, migration loss to Israel amongst French Jews reached the tens of thousands between 2014 and 2017, following a wave of anti-Semitic attacks. According to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey, over the next four decades the number of Jews around the world is expected to increase from 14.2 million in 2015 to 16.4 million in 2060.

Debate over United States numbers

The number of Jews in the United States has been much debated because of questions about counting methodology. In 2012, Sheskin and Dashefsky put forward a figure of 6.72 million based on a mixture of local surveys, informed local estimates, and US census data. They qualified their estimate with concern over double counting and suggested the real figure may lie between 6 and 6.4 million. Drawing on their work, the Steinhardt Social Research Institute released their estimate of 6.8 million Jews in the United States in 2013. These figures are in contrast to Israeli demographer Sergio Della Pergola's number of 5,425,000, also in 2012. He has called high estimates “implausible” and “unreliable”. However, he revised the United States Jewish number to 5.7 million in subsequent years. This controversy followed a similar debate in 2001 when the National Jewish Population Survey released a United States Jewish estimate as low as 5.2 million only to have serious methodological errors suggested in their survey. In sum, a confidence interval of a million or more people is likely to persist in reporting the number of Jewish Americans.

In 2020, the Pew Research Center's Jewish Americans 2020 study estimated there were 5.8 million adult Jews in the United States and 1.8 million children of at least one Jewish parent being raised as Jewish in some way, for a total of 7.5 million Jews, 2.5% of the national population. According to Sergio Della Pergola's narrower definition, which count children and adult Jews without religious affiliation only if they have two Jewish parents, this corresponds to 4.8 million Jewish adults and 1.2 million Jewish children in 2020. The American Jewish Population Project at Brandeis University, which synthesizes survey data from the 50 states and DC, estimates there are 7.63 million American Jews, 6 million adults and 1.6 million children.

By country

Jewish population by country (1,000s, 2020)

Below is a list of Jewish populations in the world by country. All data below, except the last column, are from the Berman Jewish DataBank at Stanford University in the World Jewish Population (2020) report coordinated by Sergio DellaPergola at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Jewish DataBank figures are primarily based on national censuses combined with trend analysis:

  • Core Jewish population refers to those who consider themselves Jews to the exclusion of all else.
  • Connected Jewish population includes the core Jewish population and additionally those who say they are partly Jewish or that have Jewish background from at least one Jewish parent.
  • Enlarged Jewish population includes the Jewish connected population and those who say they have Jewish background but not a Jewish parent, and all non-Jews living in households with Jews.
  • Eligible Jewish population includes all those eligible for immigration to Israel under its Law of Return.
  • National official population is the Jewish population reported by a national source. Note that the "National" results may not be entirely accurate, as other sources may have conflicting accounts of Jewish populations in some countries.

Table

Countries Core population Connected population Enlarged population Eligible population National
official
Total pct pmp Total pct pmp Total pct pmp Total pct pmp
 Israel 6,340,600 40 729,090 6,559,300 36 754,238 6,778,000 32 779,386 6,778,000 28 779,386 7,200,000
(2024)
 United States 5,700,000 36 17,320 8,000,000 44 24,309 10,000,000 48 30,386 12,000,000 50 36,463 6,300,000
(2024)
 France 440,000 2.8 6,910 550,000 3.1 8,483 650,000 3.1 10,026 750,000 3.2 11,568
 West Bank 432,800 2.8 140,280 437,800 2.4 141,901 442,700 2.1 143,489 442,700 1.9 143,489
 Canada 393,000 2.5 10,500 450,000 2.5 12,023 550,000 2.6 14,695 700,000 2.9 18,702 398,000
(2024)
 United Kingdom 292,000 1.9 4,370 330,000 1.8 4,939 370,000 1.8 5,537 410,000 1.7 6,136 312,000
(2024)
 Argentina 175,000 1.1 3,990 260,000 1.4 5,779 310,000 1.5 6,891 360,000 1.5 8,002
 Russia 155,000 0.99 1,060 320,000 1.8 2,188 460,000 2.2 3,146 600,000 2.5 4,103 157,673
(2010)
 Australia 118,000 0.75 4,660 130,000 0.72 5,134 145,000 0.69 5,726 160,000 0.67 6,319 91,022
(2016)
 Germany 118,000 0.75 1,420 150,000 0.83 1,805 225,000 1.1 2,708 275,000 1.2 3,309 83,430
(2011)
 Brazil 92,000 0.59 440 120,000 0.67 574 150,000 0.71 717 180,000 0.76 861 107,329
(2011)
 South Africa 52,300 0.33 890 65,000 0.36 1,106 75,000 0.36 1,276 85,000 0.36 1,446 49,469
(2016)
 Hungary 47,200 0.30 4,830 75,000 0.42 7,675 100,000 0.48 10,233 130,000 0.55 13,303 10,965
(2011)
 Ukraine 45,000 0.29 1,070 90,000 0.50 2,140 140,000 0.67 3,329 200,000 0.84 4,756 103,878
(2001)
 Mexico 40,000 0.25 320 45,000 0.25 360 50,000 0.24 400 65,000 0.27 520 67,476
(2010)
 Netherlands 29,800 0.19 1,250 43,000 0.24 1,563 53,000 0.25 2,188 63,000 0.26 2,813 0.1%
(2016)
 Belgium 29,000 0.18 2,530 35,000 0.19 3,053 40,000 0.19 3,490 45,000 0.19 3,926
 Italy 27,000 0.17 450 34,000 0.19 560 41,000 0.20 676 48,000 0.20 791
 Switzerland 18,500 0.12 2,160 22,000 0.12 2,569 25,000 0.12 2,919 28,000 0.12 3,269 16,763
(2011)
 Uruguay 16,000 0.10 4,690 20,000 0.11 5,685 24,000 0.11 6,822 28,000 0.12 7,959
 Chile 16,000 0.10 840 20,000 0.11 1,050 24,000 0.11 1,260 28,000 0.12 1,470 14,976
(2002)
 Sweden 15,000 0.096 1,460 20,000 0.11 1,947 25,000 0.12 2,433 30,000 0.13 2,920
 Turkey 14,500 0.092 180 19,000 0.11 234 21,000 0.100 259 23,000 0.097 284
 Spain 13,000 0.083 280 16,000 0.089 345 19,000 0.090 409 22,000 0.092 474
 Austria 10,300 0.066 1,160 14,000 0.078 1,577 17,000 0.081 1,915 20,000 0.084 2,252 8,140
(2001)
 Panama 10,000 0.064 2,370 11,000 0.061 2,607 12,000 0.057 2,844 13,000 0.055 3,081
 Iran 9,500 0.061 110 10,500 0.058 122 12,000 0.057 139 13,000 0.055 151 9,826
(2016)
 Romania 8,900 0.057 460 13,000 0.072 672 17,000 0.081 879 20,000 0.084 1,034 3,519
(2011)
 Belarus 8,500 0.054 900 17,000 0.094 1,800 25,000 0.12 2,647 33,000 0.14 3,494 13,705
(2019)
 New Zealand 7,500 0.048 1,510 8,500 0.047 1,711 9,500 0.045 1,913 10,500 0.044 2,114 5,274
(2018)
 Azerbaijan 7,200 0.046 720 10,500 0.058 1,050 15,500 0.074 1,550 20,500 0.086 2,050 9,084
(2009)
 Venezuela 6,000 0.038 210 10,000 0.055 350 12,000 0.057 420 14,000 0.059 490 9,500
(2010)
 Denmark 6,400 0.041 1,100 7,500 0.042 1,289 8,500 0.040 1,461 9,500 0.040 1,633
 India 4,800 0.031 3 6,000 0.033 4 7,500 0.036 5 9,000 0.038 6 4,650
(2011)
 Latvia 4,500 0.029 2,350 8,000 0.044 4,178 12,000 0.057 6,267 16,000 0.067 8,356 8,210
(2019)
 Poland 4,500 0.029 120 7,000 0.039 187 10,000 0.048 267 13,000 0.055 347 2,488
(2011)
 Greece 4,100 0.026 380 5,200 0.029 482 6,000 0.029 556 7,000 0.029 649
 Czech Republic 3,900 0.025 370 5,000 0.028 474 6,500 0.031 617 8,000 0.034 759 1,427
(2021)
 Portugal 3,300 0.021 296 3,500 0.019 334 4,000 0.019 382 5,000 0.021 478 2,910
(2021) - 15,000
 China 3,000 0.019 2 3,200 0.018 2 3,400 0.016 2 3,600 0.015 3
 Uzbekistan 2,900 0.018 90 6,000 0.033 186 8,000 0.038 248 10,000 0.042 310 94,689
(1989)
 Ireland 2,700 0.017 550 3,600 0.020 733 5,000 0.024 1,019 6,500 0.027 1,324 1,921
(2016)
 Slovakia 2,600 0.017 480 3,600 0.020 665 4,600 0.022 849 6,000 0.025 1,108 601
(2019)
 Kazakhstan 2,500 0.016 140 4,800 0.027 269 6,500 0.031 364 9,500 0.040 532 5,281
(2009)
 Costa Rica 2,500 0.016 490 2,800 0.016 549 3,100 0.015 608 3,400 0.014 666
 Lithuania 2,400 0.015 860 4,700 0.026 1,684 7,500 0.036 2,688 10,500 0.044 3,763 1,229
(2011)
 Colombia 2,100 0.013 40 2,800 0.016 53 3,500 0.017 67 4,500 0.019 86
 Morocco 2,100 0.013 60 2,500 0.014 71 2,800 0.013 80 3,100 0.013 89
 Bulgaria 2,000 0.013 290 4,000 0.022 580 6,000 0.029 870 8,000 0.034 1,160 1,162
(2011)
 Moldova 1,900 0.012 540 3,800 0.021 1,080 7,500 0.036 2,132 10,000 0.042 2,842 1,601
(2014)
 Estonia 1,900 0.012 1,430 2,700 0.015 2,032 3,500 0.017 2,634 4,500 0.019 3,387 1,921
(2019)
 Peru 1,900 0.012 60 2,400 0.013 76 3,000 0.014 95 3,500 0.015 111
 Croatia 1,700 0.011 420 2,400 0.013 593 3,100 0.015 766 3,800 0.016 939 536
(2011)
 Georgia 1,500 0.0096 380 3,000 0.017 760 5,000 0.024 1,267 7,500 0.032 1,900 1,417
(2014)
 Puerto Rico 1,500 0.0096 490 2,000 0.011 653 2,500 0.012 817 3,000 0.013 980
 Serbia 1,400 0.0089 200 2,100 0.012 300 2,800 0.013 400 3,500 0.015 500 578
(2011)
 Finland 1,300 0.0083 240 1,600 0.0089 295 1,900 0.0090 351 2,200 0.0092 406 1,093
(2017)
 Norway 1,300 0.0083 240 1,600 0.0089 295 2,000 0.0095 369 2,500 0.011 462 761
(2021)
 Tunisia 1,000 0.0064 90 1,200 0.0067 108 1,400 0.0067 126 1,600 0.0067 144
 Japan 1,000 0.0064 10 1,200 0.0067 12 1,400 0.0067 14 1,600 0.0067 16
 Paraguay 1,100 0.0070 150 1,300 0.0072 177 1,600 0.0076 218 1,900 0.0080 259 1,100
(2002)
 Guatemala 900 0.0057 50 1,200 0.0067 67 1,500 0.0071 83 1,800 0.0076 100
 Singapore 900 0.0057 160 1,000 0.0055 178 1,200 0.0057 213 1,400 0.0059 249
 Ecuador 600 0.0038 30 800 0.0044 40 1,000 0.0048 50 1,200 0.0050 60
 Gibraltar 800 0.0051 22,860 900 0.0050 25,718 1,000 0.0048 28,575 1,100 0.0046 31,433 763
(2012)
 Luxembourg 700 0.0045 1,130 900 0.0050 1,453 1,100 0.0052 1,776 1,300 0.0055 2,099
 Bolivia 500 0.0032 40 700 0.0039 56 900 0.0043 72 1,100 0.0046 88
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 500 0.0032 140 800 0.0044 224 1,100 0.0052 308 1,400 0.0059 392 262
(2013)
 Cuba 500 0.0032 40 1,000 0.0055 80 1,500 0.0071 120 2,000 0.0084 160
 U.S. Virgin Islands 500 0.0032 3,810 600 0.0033 5,715 700 0.0033 6,668 800 0.0034 7,620
 Kyrgyzstan 400 0.0025 60 700 0.0039 105 1,000 0.0048 150 1,500 0.0063 225 455
(2018)
 Nicaragua 250 0.0016 36 250 0.0014 36 250 0.0012 36 250 0.0011 36 181
(2017)
 Bahamas 200 0.0013 510 500 0.0028 1,275 700 0.0033 1,785 900 0.0038 2,295 191
(2010)
 Kenya 300 0.0019 10 500 0.0028 17 700 0.0033 23 900 0.0038 30
 Netherlands Antilles 400 0.0025 1,250 500 0.0028 1,563 700 0.0033 2,188 900 0.0038 2,813
 Jamaica 500 0.0032 180 300 0.0017 108 400 0.0019 144 500 0.0021 180 506
(2011)
 Suriname 200 0.0013 330 400 0.0022 660 600 0.0029 990 800 0.0034 1,320 181
(2012)
 Thailand 200 0.0013 3 300 0.0017 4 400 0.0019 6 500 0.0021 7
 Turkmenistan 200 0.0013 30 400 0.0022 60 600 0.0029 90 800 0.0034 120 1,537
(1995)
 Zimbabwe 200 0.0013 10 400 0.0022 20 600 0.0029 30 800 0.0034 40
 Armenia 100 0.00064 30 300 0.0017 90 500 0.0024 150 700 0.0029 210 127
(2011)
 Bermuda 100 0.00064 1,540 200 0.0011 3,080 300 0.0014 4,620 400 0.0017 6,160 135
(2010)
 Botswana 100 0.00064 40 200 0.0011 80 300 0.0014 120 400 0.0017 160
 DR Congo 100 0.00064 1 200 0.0011 2 300 0.0014 3 400 0.0017 4
 Cyprus 500 0.0032 240 400 0.0022 320 500 0.0024 400 600 0.0025 480
 Barbados 100 0.00064 350 200 0.0011 700 300 0.0014 1,050 400 0.0017 1,400 103
(2011)
 Dominican Republic 100 0.00064 10 200 0.0011 20 300 0.0014 30 400 0.0017 40
 Egypt 100 0.00064 1 200 0.0011 2 300 0.0014 3 400 0.0017 4
 El Salvador 100 0.00064 20 200 0.0011 40 300 0.0014 60 400 0.0017 80
 Ethiopia 100 0.00064 1 500 0.0028 4 1,000 0.0048 8 2,500 0.011 20
 Indonesia 100 0.00064 0 200 0.0011 1 300 0.0014 1 400 0.0017 1
 Malta 500 0.0032 200 200 0.0011 400 300 0.0014 600 400 0.0017 800
 Namibia 100 0.00064 40 200 0.0011 80 300 0.0014 120 400 0.0017 160
 Nigeria 100 0.00064 0 200 0.0011 1 300 0.0014 1 400 0.0017 2
 North Macedonia 100 0.00064 50 200 0.0011 100 300 0.0014 150 400 0.0017 200 66
(2021)
 Madagascar 100 0.00064 3 200 0.0011 7 300 0.0014 10 400 0.0017 14
 Philippines 100 0.00064 1 200 0.0011 2 300 0.0014 3 400 0.0017 3
 Slovenia 100 0.00064 50 200 0.0011 100 300 0.0014 150 400 0.0017 200 99
(2001)
 South Korea 100 0.00064 2 200 0.0011 4 300 0.0014 6 400 0.0017 8
 Syria 100 0.00064 5 200 0.0011 9 300 0.0014 14 400 0.0017 18
 Taiwan 100 0.00064 4 200 0.0011 8 300 0.0014 13 400 0.0017 17
 Uganda 7,189
(2014)
 Aruba 354
(2018)
 Mauritius 43
(2018)
 Tajikistan 38
(2020)
 Anguilla 16
(2018)
 Faroe Islands 12
(2020)
 Iceland 55
(2020)
 Montenegro 12
(2018)
 British Virgin Islands 11
(2018)
 Liechtenstein 26
(2020)
 Falkland Islands 1
(2018)
 World 15,700,000 100 1,920 18,030,900 100 2,341 21,005,700 100 2,727 23,809,100 100 3,091
pct = percent of total world population
pmp = per million people in country
  1. ^ Including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, not including the Judea & Samaria.
  2. ^ Figures includes France and Monaco. See: History of the Jews in France and History of the Jews in Monaco.
  3. ^ Judea and Samaria total population[when?] (without East Jerusalem): 2,548,700; Gaza: 1,839,900; Total: 4,388,600. The West Bank also includes 404,600 Jews and 8,600 non-Jewish Israelis, for a total of 413,200 Jews and others. The Jewish population of the West Bank consists of Israeli citizens living in Israeli settlements who are treated as residents of Israel under Israeli law. The reported West Bank total of 2,961,900 includes Palestinian, Jewish and other residents.
  4. ^ Including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
  5. ^ Figures include mainland China and Hong Kong SAR. See: History of the Jews in China and History of the Jews in Hong Kong.
  6. ^ Includes Lebanon.

Remnant and vanished populations

The above table represents Jews that number at least a few dozen per country. Reports exist of Jewish communities remaining in other territories in the low single digits that are on the verge of disappearing, particularly in the Muslim world, as their reaction to the birth of Israel in 1948 was the persecution of Jews in nearly all Muslim lands; these are often of historical interest as they represent the remnant of much larger Jewish populations. For example, Egypt had a Jewish community of 80,000 in the early 20th century that numbered fewer than 40 as of 2014, mainly because of the forced expulsion movements to Israel and other countries at that time. Despite a 2,000-year history of Jewish presence, there are no longer any known Jews living in Afghanistan, as its last Jewish residents Zablon Simintov and Tova Moradi, fled the country in September and October 2021, respectively.

In Syria, another ancient Jewish community saw mass exodus at the end of the 20th century and numbered fewer than 20 in the midst of the Syrian Civil War. The size of the Jewish community in Indonesia has been variously given as 65, 100, or 18 at most over the last 50 years. In Yemen due to the ongoing civil war, the Yemenite Jews have faced persecution by the Houthis, who have demanded they convert to Islam or face mandatory expulsion from the country. The Israeli military has conducted operations evacuating the population and moving them to Israel. On 28 March 2021, 13 Jews were forced by the Houthis to leave Yemen, leaving the last four elderly Jews in Yemen. According to one report there are six Jews left in Yemen: one woman, her brother, three others, and Levi Salem Marahbi (who had been imprisoned for helping smuggle a Torah scroll out of Yemen).

See also


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