World Jewish Population, 2012
World Jewish population is estimated at about 13.7 million at the beginning of 2012. Any increase over the preceding year was due to natural increase in Israel. The aggregate of other countries worldwide lost Jewish population due to a negative balance of
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World Jewish Population, 2012 Sergio DellaPergola
At the beginning of 2012, the world’s Jewish population was estimated at 13,746,100—an increase of 88,300 (0.65%) over the 2011 revised estimate.1 The world’s total population increased by 1.26% in 2011.2 Hence, world Jewry increased at about half the general population growth rate. Figure 6.1 illustrates changes in the number of Jews worldwide, in Israel, and, in the aggregate, in the rest of the world—commonly referred to as the Diaspora—as well as changes in the world’s total population between 1945 and 2012. The world’s core Jewish population was estimated at 11 million in 1945. The core Jewish population concept assumes mutually exclusive sub-populations even though multiple cultural identities are an increasingly frequent feature in contemporary societies (see more on definitions below). While 13 years were needed to add one million Jews after the tragic human losses of World War II and the Shoah, 47 more years were needed to add another million. Since 1970, world Jewry practically stagnated at zero population growth, with some recovery during the first decade of the twenty-first century. This was the result of the combination of two very different demographic trends in Israel and the Diaspora. Israel’s Jewish population increased linearly from an initial one-half million in 1945 to 5.9 million in 2012. The Diaspora, from an initial 10.5 million in 1945, was quite stable until the early 1970s, when it started decreasing to the current 7.8 million. The world’s total population increased threefold from 2.315 billion in 1945 to 7.075 billion in 2012. Thus, the relative share of Jews among the world’s total population steadily diminished from 4.75 per 1,000 in 1945 to 1.94 per 1,000 currently. Figure 6.2 shows the largest core Jewish populations in 2012. Two countries, Israel and the US, account for over 82% of the total, another 16 countries, each with more than 18,000 Jews, accounted for another 16% of the total, and another more S. DellaPergola (*) The Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91905, Israel e-mail: [email protected] A. Dashefsky and I. Sheskin (eds.), American Jewish Year Book 2012, American Jewish Year Book 109-112, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5204-7_6, # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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16,000
14,000
12,000
Thousands
10,000 World Jews Diaspora Jews Israel Jews World Total (Millions) Jews per million
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
12
10
20
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95
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90
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85
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45
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Fig. 6.1 World total population and Jewish population core definition, 1945–2012
Belgium, 30,000 Mexico, 39,200 Hungary, 48,200 Ukraine, 67,000 South Africa, 70,200 Brazil, 95,300
Netherlands, 29,900
Italy, 28,200 Chile, 18,500 10,000-19,999 Jews, 101,400 1-9,999 Jews, 139,300
Australia, 112,000 Germany, 119,000 Argentina, 181,800 Russia, 194,000 Un. Kingdom, 291,000 Canada, 375,000 France, 480,000
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