The North American Jewish Data Bank, a joint project of The Jewish Federations of North America and the University of Connecticut, has just published new estimates of the Jewish population in local communities across the United States.
from Jewish Population in the United States, 2010:
Based upon a summation of local Jewish community studies, the estimated size of the American Jewish community in 2010 is 6,544,000 Jews, compared to an estimate of 6,489,000 in 2008. The 6.5 million is about 1.3 million more than the Jewish population estimate reported by UJC (now the Jewish Federations of North America) in its 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS 2000-01). See the 2006 American Jewish Year Book and Report 2010-2 by Sergio DellaPergola for an explanation of these differences.
The increase of 55,000 Jews from 2008 to 2010 should not necessarily be interpreted to imply that the number of Jews in the United States is increasing. Rather, for some communities, we simply have new estimates that are higher than the previous estimates, which were too low. In other cases, through our research, we found existing communities which were not included in 2008’s Table.
For reasons discussed in the 2006 American Jewish Year Book, it is unlikely that the number of American Jews is actually more than 6.5 million. Rather, we would maintain that the actual number is probably between 6.0 million and 6.4 million. Briefly, some part-year households (households who spend part of the year in one community and part in another), some college students (who are reported in two communities), and some households who moved from one community to another between local Jewish community studies are, to some extent, being double-counted…
The complete report, including listings by state, age and more, is available on the Data Bank website.
