U.S. Jewish Population Reaches 6.5 Million

JTA

Percentage of Jewish population in the United States, by county.

About six and a half million Jews are living in the United States, according to two independent studies.

The two studies, using completely different methodology, discovered between 6.4 million and 6.6 million U.S. Jews, or about 1.8 percent of the population, the Forward reported.

The figure is some 20 percent higher than the 5.2 million reported by the 2000 National Jewish Population Survey sponsored by the Jewish Federations of North America, a study that was found to be faulty and said to have undercounted the Jewish population.

A study by Ira Sheskin, a human geographer at the University of Miami, and Arnold Dashefsky, a sociologist at the University of Connecticut, for the North American Jewish Data Bank at the University of Connecticut reported on Dec. 18 that the correct figure is 6,588,000.

A study released on Dec. 23 by Leonard Saxe, a Brandeis University sociologist, put the number of U.S. Jews at 6.4 million.

The studies are important indicators of the size of the U.S. Jewish population, because the once-a-decade National Jewish Population Survey was not conducted this year after the Jewish Federations declined to underwrite the survey.

A spokesman for the Jewish Federations told JTA that the umbrella group is in preliminary discussions about underwriting another national study.

7 Comments

  • Nick and Daniella Brown

    WOW! WHAT A KIDDUSH HASHEM, THIS SHOWS THE NON JEWS THAT EVEN AFTER PAIN,SUFFERING,& LOSTS WE 6.5 MILLION OF US STILL B”H EXIST AND STILL HAVE FAITH IN G-D!!!

    BARUCH HASHEM!
    MOSHIACH NOWWWWWWWWW !

  • Are we making a kiddush Hashem?

    It’s too bad waaaaaaay too many of us are leaching of the gov’t with foodstamps because we hide our incomes, or how we have so many kids in the schools yet can’t pay the teachers a living wage, or have major sexual abuse issues second only to one other group.

    If we are 6 Million, let’s turn the tide for the good in memory of the other 6 Million of righteous memory.