On the eve of the Jewish new year, world Jewry numbered around 15.2 million people, the Jewish Agency said in a report published on Sunday.
According to the report, around 6,930,000 Jews live in Israel while another 8.3 million are living in the Diaspora, about six million of which live in the United States alone.
2 View gallery
Boy waves Israeli flag after touching ground in Ben Gurion Airport as Israel welcomes hundreds of Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia
(Photo: GPO)
The estimated number of U.S. Jews was revised up by 300,000 following a survey carried out in 2020 by Washington-based think tank Pew Research Center.
Following Israel and the U.S., the countries with the most Jews are France (446,000), Canada (393,500), Britain (292,000), Argentina (175,000), Russia (150,000), Germany (118,000) and Australia (118,000).
The Jewish Agency said that some 27,000 Jews live in Arab and Muslim countries — 14,500 living in Turkey, 9,500 in Iran, 2,000 in Morocco and 1,000 in Tunisia.
Countries with a Jewish population of 500 or less include United Arab Emirates, El Salvador, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Bolivia, Suriname, Malta, Slovenia, Cyprus, Albania, Bosnia, Northern Macedonia, Armenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, South Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Egypt, Nigeria, Namibia, Congo, Kenya, Yemen.
2 View gallery
Morocco's King Mohammed VI during a visit to the 'Bayt Dakira' (House of Memory) museum, in the Atlantic coastal city of Essaouira
(Photo: Reuters)
Data show that there are currently 470,000 people living in Israel who are entitled to Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return despite not being registered as Jewish in the Population Registry.
The Law of Return gives Jews and their relatives the right to come and live in Israel, granting them automatic citizenship.
According to the Jewish Agency, there are 25.3 million people worldwide eligible to get Israeli citizenship under the law.
The report, conducted by Prof. Sergio della Pergola of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, includes only those who define themselves as Jewish and do not hold any other religious identity. The data does not include those who define themselves as "partially Jewish."