- Jewish population
Jewish population refers to the number of
Jew s in the world. Precise figures are difficult to calculate because the definition of "Who is a Jew " remains a source of controversy.Total population
According to the estimates for 2007 of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, the world population of Jews is 13.2 million. [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/942009.html Percent of world Jewry living in Israel climbed to 41% in 2007 - Haaretz - Israel News ] ]
Adherents.com cites figures ranging from 18.8 million to 25.2 million Jews. [ [http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_408.html Judaism, continued...] citations atAdherents.com ] These statistics incorporate both practicing Jews affiliated with synagogues and the Jewish community, and approximately 4.5 million unaffiliated and secular Jews.In 2007, 41% of the world's Jews were living in Israel. The number of Jews living outside Israel dropped by 100,000 and the Jewish population of Israel rose by 300,000. [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/942009.html Percent of world Jewry living in Israel climbed to 41% in 2007 - Haaretz - Israel News ] ]
The
Jewish Autonomous Oblast continues to be anautonomous oblast of the Russian state. [http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/041008/revival.shtml]Governor Nikolay Mikhaylovich Volkov has stated that he intends to, "support every valuable initiative maintained by our local Jewish organizations." [http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=221939] TheBirobidzhan Synagogue opened in2004 on the 70th anniversary of the regions founding in1934 . [http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=166969] TheChief Rabbi ofBirobidzhan ,Mordechai Scheiner , says there are 4,000 Jews in the capital city. [http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=525676&cid=84435&NewsType=80052]Largest Jewish populations by country
This table represents data from 2002.
Top 50 countries by Jewish population Rank Country Jews % Jewish % of all Jews 1 United States 6,150,000 2% 38.62% 2 Israel 5,600,000 76.1% 35.7% 3 Russia 800,000 0.57% 4.91% 4 France 606,561 1% 4.15% 5 Canada 393,660 1.2% 2.695% 6 United Kingdom 350,000 0.6% 1.97% 7 Argentina 250,000 0.67% 1.335% 8 Germany 118,000 0.25% 1.51% 9 Ukraine 142,276 0.3% 0.97% 10 Australia 120,000 0.55% 0.82% 11 South Africa 88,688 0.04% 0.61% 12 Brazil 94,000 0.1% 0.60% 13 Belarus 72,103 0.7% <0.5% 14 Hungary 49,000 0.47% <0.5% 15 Mexico 53,101 0.05% <0.5% 16 Belgium 51,821 0.5% <0.5% 17 Spain 48,409 0.12% <0.5% 18 Netherlands 32,814 0.2% <0.5% 19 Moldova 31,187 0.7% <0.5% 20 Uruguay 30,743 0.9% <0.5% 21 Italy 30,213 0.052% <0.5% 22 Chile 25,375 0.131% <0.5% 23 Poland 24,999 0.065% <0.5% 24 Venezuela 20,900 0.1% <0.5% 25 Iran 20,405 0.03% <0.5% 26 Ethiopia 20,000 0.027% <0.5% 27 Sweden 18,003 0.2% <0.5% 28 Uzbekistan 17,453 0.065% <0.5% 29 Turkey 17,415 0.025% <0.5% 30 India 15,405 0.005% <0.5% 31 Switzerland 14,649 0.2% <0.5% 32 Panama 10,029 0.33% <0.5% 33 Latvia 9,092 0.397% <0.5% 34 Austria 8,184 0.1% <0.5% 35 Georgia 7,951 0.17% <0.5% 36 Azerbaijan 7,911 0.1% <0.5% 37 Denmark 7,062 0.13% <0.5% 38 Romania 6,029 0.027% <0.5% 39 New Zealand 5,447 0.135% <0.5% 40 Greece 5,334 0.05% <0.5% 41 Morocco 5,236 0.016% <0.5% 42 Kazakhstan 4,100 0.027% <0.5% 43 Lithuania 3,596 0.1% <0.5% 44 Colombia 7,436 0.008% <0.5% 45 Czech Republic 3,072 0.03% <0.5% 46 Slovakia 3,041 0.056% <0.5% 47 Peru 2,800 0.01% <0.5% 48 Costa Rica 2,409 0.06% <0.5% 49 Bulgaria 2,300 0.031% <0.5% 50 Ireland 1,930 0.045% <0.5% Current population estimates
According to the World Jewish Population Survey of 2002 [ [http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/demography/demjpop.html World Jewish Population Survey of 2002] ] , "The size of world Jewry at the beginning of 2002 is assessed at 13,296,100. World Jewry constituted about 2.19 per 1,000 of the world’s total population. One in about 457 people in the world is a Jew. According to the revised figures, between 2001 and 2002 the Jewish population grew by an estimated 44,000 people, or about 0.3 percent."
According to a 2002 study [ [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/04/1038712942028.html Number of Jews dropping, Israeli agency warns] 4 December 2002] by the Jewish Agency, "the number of Jews in the world is declining at an average of 50,000 per year."
The major population centers of the Jewish community are (Table from the World Jewish Population Survey)
a January 1.
b Minor discrepancies due to rounding.
c U.S. andCanada .
d Asian regions ofRussia andTurkey included in Europe.
e IncludingEthiopia .
fSouth Africa ,Zimbabwe , and other sub-Saharan countries.
gAustralia ,New Zealand .
h Including about 370,000 Jewish Israeli citizens living in theWest Bank andGolan Heights .Populations as a percentage
All estimates of population in this section are generated by taking the estimated percentage of Jews in each country, and multiplying it by the population of the country. Though figures given in the table may seem precise to many digits, they are often highly inaccurate, and can vary by significant margins from other published surveys. This data is intended to give rough estimates of the number of Jews in each country, more precise estimates for some countries are available above.
As an example, the tables below give the Jewish population of Argentina as 195,000 Jews in Argentina, but the best survey-based sources generally estimate the number of Jews in Argentina between 185,000 and 250,000 [ [http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/mar/data/argjew.htm Jews In Argentina] ] . All the numbers below are similarly estimates, so the figures in the table below should be considered in the light of these variations, and should not be viewed as exact counts.
The percentage of Jewish population of each country was taken from the US State Department's "International Religious Freedom Report 2004" [US State Department's [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/ International Religious Freedom Report 2004'] ] , and, if not available on that site, from Jewish Population Tables [ [http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/demography/demtables.html Jewish Population Tables] ] . The total population of each country was taken from census.gov [ [http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl census.gov] ] (2005 estimates).
These numbers are for
Jew s as anethnicity ; many, but not all, practice the religion ofJudaism .By country
"Note: The total at the end shows the entire population of the world, not just the listed countries"
By region
These percentages were calculated by using the above numbers. The first percentage, 4th column, is the percentage of population that is Jewish in a region (Jews in the region * 100/total population of the region). The last column shows the Jewish percentage compared to the total Jewish population of the world (Jews in the region * 100/total Jewish population of the world).
"(Note: Egypt, Sudan, and the Arab
Maghreb countries are counted as part of North Africa, not Middle East)."Jews in Africa Region Total Population Jews % Jewish % of Jews total Central Africa 83,121,055 1,000 0.0001% 0.0008% East Africa 193,741,900 20,400 0.011% 0.14% North Africa 202,151,323 7,249 0.004% 0.05% Southern Africa 137,092,019 89,667 0.065% 0.614% West Africa 268,997,245 42,000 0.00004% 0.0007% Total 885,103,542 160,316 0.013% 0.805% Jews inAsia Region Total Population Jews % Jewish % of Jews total Central Asia 92,019,166 23,074 0.025% 0.158% East Asia 1,527,960,261 2,102 0.0001% 0.014% Middle East 274,775,527 5,076,338 1.847% 34.779% South Asia 1,437,326,682 15,401 0.0004% 0.037% Southeast Asia 571,337,070 599 0.0001% 0.004% Total 3,903,418,706 5,117,514 0.131% 34.993% Jews in Europe Region Total Population Jews % Jewish % of Jews total Balkans 65,407,609 18,299 0.028% 0.125% Central Europe 74,510,241 99,437 0.133% 0.681% Eastern Europe 212,821,296 977,173 0.459% 6.695% Western Europe 375,832,557 1,224,176 0.326% 8.387% Total 728,571,703 2,319,085 0.318% 15.888% Jews inThe Americas Region Total Population Jews % Jewish % of Jews total Caribbean 23,809,622 1,888 0.008% 0.013% Central America 42,223,849 52,500 0.035% 0.124% North America 446,088,748 6,361,443 1.426% 43.1% South America 371,075,531 359,800 0.09% 2.7% Total 859,388,128 6,773,743 0.788% 45.9% Jews inOceania Region Total Population Jews % Jewish % of Jews total Oceania 30,564,520 95,853 0.314% 0.657% References
*JewishEncyclopedia
*This article incorporates text from Joseph Jacobs, [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1044&letter=S "Statistics"] in the "Jewish Encyclopedia"; that article, in turn, gives an extensive bibliography.
* [http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/demography/demtables.html Jewish Population Survey]
* [http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/comenetz/gjpsyll.html Geography of the Jewish Population]
*The US State Department's [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/ International Religious Freedom Report 2004]
* [http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/demography/demtables.html Jewish Population Table]
* [http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/nationprofiles/ Religious Freedom page]
* [http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl census.gov]
* [http://www.rabbihowardgorin.org Jews of Nigeria and Uganda]
* [http://bneimenashe.com Jews of North Eastern India]
* [http://www.israelbooks.com/bookDetails.asp?book=405 Israelbooks.com] The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute Annual Assessment 2004-2005: "Between Thriving and Decline". Gefen Publishing House.ee also
*
Historical Jewish population comparisons
*World population
*Jews by country
*Jewish ethnic divisions
*Judaism External links
* [http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/world-jewish-population.htm World Jewish Population] in-depth
* [http://news.ufl.edu/2006/11/27/hasidic-jews Orthodox Jewish population growth and political changes]
* [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/anglo/angap03.htm Estimated Jewish Population of Europe] (1949 and 1945) The Avalon Project
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