New data: 13.75 million Jews in the world

On the eve of Rosh Hashana 5773, the Jewish nation numbers 13.75 million people – an increase of 88,300 in comparison to the beginning of last year.

In comparison to the growing rate of the world population, the achievement is not so great: while the world population grew in the past year by almost 1.26% and its number crossed the line of 7 milliard, the yearly growing rate of the Jewish nation is almost half of that – only 0.65%.

These details emerge from data of a new report – which is first published in Ma'ariv newspaper – regarding the size of the Jewish nation in the world in 2012, which were collected and analyzed by the demographer Prof. Sergio De La Pergola of the Hebrew University. His full report will be published after Rosh Hashana in the Jewish-American annual 'American Jewish Year Book'.

In 1945, after the Second World War, as the report writer mentions, the Jewish population which remained in the world was estimated at 11 million.

According to the central bureau of statistics, today 5.97 million Jews live in Israel, and compose 43% of world Jewry. Another large center of Jews is the USA where 5.46 million (39%) live. In the whole of Europe 1.43 million Jews are living today.

According to Ma'ariv, the report emphasizes that as of 1970, the Diaspora Jewry started shrinking, in parallel to a constant rise in the Jewish population in Israel. Only last year, for example, the entire Diaspora Jewry shrank by more than 10,000 people.

One of the main reasons is making Aliya to Israel. So, for example, in the former USSR, where more than 3 million Jews lived in the past, only 276 thousand Jews remained. Another reason is the rise of assimilation. The rate of inter-marriages between Jews and non-Jews in the USA crossed the verge of 50%. In Russia, in contrast, 70% of women and 80% of men are married to non-Jews.

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