More than 80 years after the Holocaust decimated world Jewry, the global Jewish population has yet to recover to its pre-war numbers, a new study from the Pew Research Center reveals.
In 1939, on the eve of World War II, there were approximately 16.6 million Jews worldwide. Today, that number stands at about 14.8 million — still more than 1.8 million fewer than before the Holocaust, which claimed over six million Jewish lives.
Between 2010 and 2020, the global Jewish population grew by just 6.2%, from 13.91 million to 14.8 million. In comparison, the overall world population grew by 12.3% during the same period — nearly double the Jewish growth rate.
“Have Jews made up for the loss of people killed in the Holocaust? The answer is no,” said Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. “It takes a long time to replace a third of the population. It still hasn’t happened. It’s a reminder of how many people we lost in the Holocaust.”
According to Pew, Jews make up just 0.2% of the global population.
Geographically, the majority of the world’s Jews now reside in Israel and North America. The Middle East and North Africa region — largely due to Israel — now has the largest Jewish population at 6.8 million, surpassing North America’s 6.1 million. Israel alone added more than 1 million Jews between 2010 and 2020, while the U.S. saw an increase of only 30,000.
By contrast, Europe’s Jewish population declined by 8% over the decade, from 1.39 million to 1.28 million, and sub-Saharan Africa saw a dramatic 37% drop, from 80,000 to 50,000. The Asia-Pacific region experienced a slight increase of 2%, from 180,000 to 190,000.
Eighty-five percent of the world’s Jews now live in just two countries — Israel and the United States — highlighting the demographic concentration of global Jewry.
Pew’s estimates are based on Israel’s population registry and religious self-identification elsewhere. Experts note that definitions of Jewish identity and the difficulty of comprehensive global data collection mean that the actual numbers may vary slightly.
Sarna added that in many Western societies, Jewish birth rates are relatively low — similar to the broader population — with the exception of Orthodox communities, where families tend to be larger due to younger marriages and higher fertility rates.
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7 Responses
“Between 2010 and 2020, the global Jewish population grew by just 6.2%, from 13.91 million to 14.8 million”
“In 1939, on the eve of World War II, there were approximately 16.6 million Jews worldwide. Today, that number stands at about 14.8 million — still more than 1.8 million fewer than before the Holocaust, which claimed over six million Jewish lives.“
Were in 2025 so in 5 years we got more than 14.8
Great journal reporting! 🙄
This might be true, but I’m sure the Torah Jewry population increased significantly from pre-war levels.
“Jewish birth rates are relatively low — similar to the broader population — with the exception of Orthodox communities” how long will it be before Orthodox communities make up the majority of all the Jews?
This is mostly the fault of the Reform and Conservative movements as well as the seculars, whose children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are in large part gentiles, as they continually marry gentiles and engage in fake “conversions”.
This is on Drudge.
Reply to davidthekanoi. When the definition of “Orthodox” changes
The Torah community in 1939 was actually larger in numbers than in 2025. Approximately 60% of those mudered by the nazis were shomer shabbos. So thats 3,600,000 jews. We’re nowhere near that today, unfortunately.