US Trends

where do jews live

Most Jews today live in many different countries around the world, with the largest communities in Israel and the United States, and smaller communities spread across Europe, the Americas, and other regions. Jewish communities exist on every inhabited continent, from large urban centers like Jerusalem and New York to small, historic or newer diaspora communities in dozens of other countries.

Global overview

  • Jews make up a very small share of the world’s population (around 0.2%), but are highly concentrated in a few countries.
  • About 85% of Jews live in just two countries: Israel and the United States.
  • Around 96% of Jews live in the ten countries with the largest Jewish populations, with only a few hundred thousand spread across many other states.

Main regions

  • Middle East–North Africa: Israel now has the single largest Jewish population, and the Middle East–North Africa region overall has become the largest regional center for Jews, mainly because of growth in Israel.
  • North America: The United States hosts one of the two largest Jewish populations in the world, with Canada also home to a significant community.
  • Europe and Latin America: Countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Argentina, and Germany each have well-established Jewish communities, though smaller than those of Israel and the U.S.

Countries with largest populations

  • Israel and the United States are the only countries with Jewish populations in the millions, and together account for about 85% of the world’s Jews.
  • Other countries with notable Jewish populations (over 100,000) include France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Russia, Germany, and Australia.

Smaller and surprising communities

  • Beyond the main centers, there are small but continuous Jewish communities in places like Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates, among others.
  • There are also tiny or emerging communities in locations ranging from Peru and Namibia to Japan and parts of Siberia, illustrating that Jews live in many unexpected corners of the world.

Context and sensitivity

  • Questions about “where Jews live” connect to a long history of diaspora, migration, and sometimes persecution, so it is important to approach the topic with respectful curiosity rather than stereotypes.
  • Modern Jewish life is diverse: different communities (such as Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi) developed distinct cultures depending on the regions where their ancestors lived, even though they share a common religious and historical identity.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.