The Jewish world Image by TzahiV/iStock

By Aiden Pink September 5, 2019

The Jewish Agency for Israel’s annual world Jewish population figures have been released, and they reveal that Jews continue to be spread throughout the world, although mostly concentrated in major countries.

According to research by Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor Sergio Della Pergola, the global Jewish population in 2019 is 14.6 million. There are 175 countries where the Jewish population is 100 or bigger, but 84% of global Jewry lives either in the Israel or the United States.

Della Pergola defined a country’s “core Jewish population” as anyone who identified themselves as Jews; anyone without a religion who was identified as Jewish by a respondent in the same household; or anyone with Jewish parentage who does not identify with a particular religion. If one were to use the broader definition of Israel’s Law of Return – anyone with a Jewish grandparent – the number would swell to 23.5 million.

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Here are the top 10 countries by core Jewish population, compared with data from the 2012 edition of the study:

1. Israel: 6,153,500 (grew 10.2%)
2. United States: 5,700,000 (grew 5.1%)
3. France: 453,000 (shrank 5.6%)
4. Canada: 395,000 (grew 5.3%)
5. United Kingdom: 290,000 (shrank 0.3%)
6. Argentina: 180,300 (shrank 0.8%)
7. Russia: 172,000 (shrank 11.3%)
8. Germany: 116,000 (shrank 2.5%)
9. Australia: 113,400 (grew 1.3%)
10. Brazil: 93,200 (shrank 2.2%)

South Africa, Ukraine, Hungary, Mexico, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy also had core Jewish populations of 25,000 or more.

Correction: A previous version of this article omitted Belgium from the list of countries with a Jewish population of 25,000 or more.

Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at pink@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink

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