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| Jewish children at the Western Wall in Jerusalem (photo credit: Mendy Hechtman/Flash90) |
One of 514 people on Earth is Jewish; at 0.65%, population growth rate is well below world average.
The global Jewish population grew by more than 88,000 people over the past year and reached 13.75 million, according to a study by Professor Sergio DellaPergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The report’s findings revealed that while the world’s population grew by 1.26 percent and crossed the seven billion mark, the growth rate of the Jewish people was significantly smaller at 0.65%. In all, one out of 514 people in the world is Jewish — less than 0.2% of mankind, according to excerpts of the study published in Maariv Sunday.
The full report was set to be published in the “American Jewish Year Book” at the start of the upcoming Jewish year.
The study found that with 5.97 million Jews, Israel has the largest Jewish population, making up 43% of the tribe’s total members. The US is home to the second largest Jewish population, with 5.46 million Jews, making up a further 39%. In all of Europe there is a total of 1.43 million Jews.
The number of Jews living outside of Israel was dwindling and had shrunk by more than 10,000 people over the past year, the report showed. The main reasons for the plummeting numbers: intermarriage and immigration to Israel.
In the US more than 50% of Jews who got married in the past year chose non-Jewish partners, while in Russia the number was much higher — 70% of the women and 80% of the men married non-Jew.
By AARON KALMAN
