Talk:Jewish population by country

The U.S. figure exceeds the North America figure -- Something is obviously very wrong

The figure given for the United States is larger than the figures given for North America. Since all of the United States (except perhaps Hawaii, Guam, etc., which have very few Jews) is in North America, the North America figures should be larger than the U.S.A. figures. The U.S. and North America figures might both be wrong, but they cannot both be right. One, the other, or both, is wrong. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.10.94.35 (talk) 23:22, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Maps

I didn't give you permission to use my maps.

This comment was added anonymously 28 Dec 2004. No way to know if it was posted by the creator of the maps but it got me to look at the provenance. The image pages attribute them to Matthew White and link to http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/maildrop.htm. On that page, he writes, "I do not release my work into the public domain. I do not allow my work to be distributed under GNU Free Documentation License." He's also pretty clear about giving permission only for non-commercial use, whereas Wikipedia is not supposed to use images with that restriction. I'd say this use is almost certainly not legit, and I am going to flag the images as probable copyvios. -- Jmabel | Talk 06:48, Dec 29, 2004 (UTC)

Jmabel, I added the images when I created the article, and I did make sure that these images were tagged properly. According to the usage page, his older maps were acceptable to reprint as long as credit was given and they were not used commercially. Even though they were not GNU licensed, they seemed valuable to include, and available for wiki use under the author's own usage restrictions. If that was a mistake, then do remove them. --Goodoldpolonius2 16:00, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Given the above note, which may or may not be from Matthew White, could you possibly contact him and try to get his overt permission to use these? -- Jmabel | Talk 21:36, Dec 29, 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, though he warns that he checks his email less than once every six months - hopefully he will come back (if that is him) and answer directly. --Goodoldpolonius2 23:17, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Yes. It was me. If you personally were the end user, I would be more relaxed about it, but Wikipedia content gets copied by about three hundred unrelated sites, some of whom are commercial, most of which are unedited without even the minimal quality control. Also, I only allow 3 maps per site, and Wikipedia is up against its quota already. Also, since Wikipedia has ten thousand writers and it's never finished, there's no guarantee that in three months the maps won't be illustrating some neo-Nazi tirade, which will then have my name attached. So please, remove them. Sorry. Matthew White 30 Dec.

Okay, Matthew, too bad. Let us know if you change your mind. In the meantime (every hopeful), I will remove them. --Goodoldpolonius2 15:12, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Israel vs. Diaspora

It seems to me that the breakdown of the numbers into Israel vs. "diaspora" is a political one, rather than anything else. World total is, of course, appropriate, as are these other breakdowns, but "diaspora" (which is simply the total minus Israel) seems to to be in this chart as a separate entry only out of Zionist political position. Barring a clear reasoned objection in the next few days, I will remove it. -- Jmabel | Talk 09:37, Dec 20, 2004 (UTC) Since no one has voiced disagreement, I am going ahead with this. -- Jmabel | Talk 23:06, Dec 30, 2004 (UTC)

NPOV issues in this article

There are some NPOV issues in this article but I am not editing directly first purposing it in the talk. The most evident of those is following.

Jewish population in ‘west bank’ and ‘gaza strip’ should also be mentioned because many countries don’t recognize it as a part of Israel and that makes it forth largest ‘jewish population’ after US, Israel and France.
Zain 13:22, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Maybe just footnote Israel as "including disputed territories"? Because otherwise we are going to get dragged into the distinction between unilaterally annexed East Jersualem and the rest of the West Bank, and the issue of the small number of Jews (but possibly comparable to the number of Jews in Gaza) living illegally even by Israeli standards in territory not authorized for settlements, etc. Anyway, for now, I'll just add the footnote. -- Jmabel | Talk 18:35, Dec 20, 2004 (UTC)

As the concern section gives ‘Jewish population distribution’ in different areas if you give approximate number of Jews in occupied areas, from my side contents will be acceptable. The number which I believe is 370,000. You can also check this number as a foot note on Jew article.

Thanks for your cooperation Zain 21:30, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for your changes :-) Zain 23:37, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Population tables

Jmabel, would it be more interesting to see the 1900 and 2002 tables side by side? I think it would allow for interesting comparisons, and fill the page better as well. Thoughts? Jayjg | (Talk) 02:31, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

They are not very comparable on any level smaller than continents. For example, the meaning of Austria in 1900 is so archaic that I didn't even link it to our Austria article, I linked it to Cisleithania. -- Jmabel | Talk 03:16, Dec 31, 2004 (UTC)

Well, ok, but on the continent level it is, and I think the aesthetics are better. Cisleithania? Very impressive. :-) Jayjg | (Talk) 03:48, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC

New population info: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/jewpop.html

160.39.226.97 06:13, 8 February 2007 (UTC)lauren160.39.226.97 06:13, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Table problem

These tables are messed up again. I would change them if I knew how, but I don't. I'm sure one of you out there must know what to do. I'm sure there's valuable information there if I could see it in any clear format. Help! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.59.221.184 (talk • contribs) 15 Nov 2005.

Looks fine to me, browsing at the moment with Internet Explorer. If you are still seeing a problem, could you be more specific? -- Jmabel | Talk 23:26, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

The calculations of percentage Jewish population for several countries is clearly wrong. I dont have time to check everyone, but belgium, netherlands, denmark seem off by at least a factor of ten. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.87.4.130 (talk) 17:17, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

Nice Job, Jmabel

Good job on the rewrite of the page - coherent and informative. --Goodoldpolonius2 03:08, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I agree. Jayjg | (Talk) 03:13, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Tables

What happened to the tables on this page? OneGuy 23:25, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Yikes, that's awful. I think something has changed in Wikipedia, in the past couple of days "un-executed" html format commands have started showing, rather than being hidden. That's how I discovered I had one in my sig. Jayjg | (Talk) 14:32, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Hmm. Looks fine in my browser (FireFox). Either this is browser-specific or it's been switched back. -- Jmabel | Talk 02:55, Jan 22, 2005 (UTC)

It's displaying fine now unlike yesterday. OneGuy 04:53, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Bnei Menashe

someone wanna update this to include the estimated 6,000 newly "official Jews" (Bnei Menashe) in India? Tomer ^TALK 03:05, Apr 4, 2005 (UTC)

Well, according to Rabbi Shlomo, they aren't Jewish until his folks finish officially converting them[1]. Then, I suppose, they are all going to Israel, like the previous Indian Jewish communities, so there will be little need to update the India list. --Goodoldpolonius2 03:18, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

From what I've read on the subject, relying on other articles than just the Haaretz article, is that the Rabanut is planning to open a semipermanent "outreach" facility. There are some 5 million people who are members of the ethnic groups in question (it doesn't just involve the Mizo)...and from what I've read, the rabanut sees this as an ongoing process. My understanding, again, relying on Shavei Israel and other sources, is that the rabanut has declared "kosher" those who are already living as Jews, and is planning for the future, rather than merely giving a stamp of approval to what is essentially already a given "fact" in the mind of Shavei Yisrael and the Bnei Menashe community already living in India. Tomer ^TALK 04:32, Apr 4, 2005 (UTC)

Double counting

The Israeli population stats include anyone who has Israeli citizenship or permanent resident status and has visited Israel within a year. Most of these people are also included in the Jew population of other countries. So summing these numbers is meaningless and deceptive.

"Meaningless and deceptive?" Perhaps you want to provide a source on the magnitude of this "deception"? Or actually read the report cited in the article, which talks about methodology? The numbers are population estimates, and as the Jewish population surveys have not been shy about showing decreases in Jewish population, I am not aware of any source that says that worldwide Jewish population numbers have been systmatically inflated. Israel does indeed count in its census citizens that live abroad but return once a year, similar to how other countries count their population, but there does not seem to be any reason to believe these people are double-counted in any large numbers in the censuses of other countries. The counts of population in the United States are done by sampling surveys of local Jewish communities, for example, not citizenship counts, and efforts are made to weed out dual-counting, which is always a problem in surveys and are included in margins of error(take a look at the methodology section). In fact, the numbers provided here are the lowest population estimates, the big debate is over the definition of what it is to be a Jew, and many of the margins of error are high in any case -- 3.5% for the US, larger for some other countries. --Goodoldpolonius2 15:19, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

I wish I had a source for the the resident and non-resident populations. The CBI has this information, they just don't publish it. I have seen estimates of several hundred thousand "Israelis living abroad". I can find nothing in the report that indicates they have corrected for this. Most other countries publish statistics on the number of people actually living there (useful for planning roads and schools, etc.)24.64.166.191 23:39, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

The numbers are usually that as many as a few hundred thousand Israelis live abroad, according to an article I read awhile ago (sorry, no source). But the census figures are done similarly for the United States, in that they count citizens living abroad in the census of US citizens. Again, there isn't really any reason to suspect massive double-counting, given the methodological differences in the survey techniques, and any double-counting, even of several hundred thousand people, is entirely overwhelmed by the uncertainty around the numbers as a whole. From adherents.com: "Estimates of the world's Jewish population range from about 12 million to over 17 million. On the high end of realistic estimates of how many people would consider themselves Jews seems to be about 15 million, but a figure this high would include a large number of non-practicing, purely ethnic Jews"[2] --Goodoldpolonius2 02:38, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

I found some info on the Canada census. They count diplomatic and military employees abroad.

I am skeptical about your claim about the US - they have no way of contacting civilians living abroad and they do not keep records of every border crossing. Until recently at least.

I pulled the US stuff off of the census methodology page, but what they claim and what is real is probably very diferent. In any case, as I said, the 5 million person discrepency between surveys, plus the fact that the article's numbers are lower than the "realistic estimates" of 15 million cited above, leads me to believe that this is not a problem in any case. --Goodoldpolonius2 07:34, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

The US stuff is moot regardless. The US does not count "Jews" in the census, and so the AJYB conducts "surveys", which are questionable at best (read "pure bunk"). Not only are their criteria for Who is a Jew? somewhat murky, their "survey" methods are rather flawed. For example, on page 268 of the 2002 AJYB, it lists only an estimated 100 Jews for Appleton, Wisconsin (a preposterously low number) and an estimated 300 Jews for Wausau, which it notes "includes Stevens Point, Marshfield, Antigo and Rhinelander" (p.274). It also lists 300 Jews in "other places", which seems like kind of an "out". I can tell you, there are more than 300 Jews in "other places" in Wisconsin. How I know is that in Eau Claire, where I live, there are about 100 Jews who associate actively with the Jewish community at least during high holy days. There are many more who are Jewish, who don't deny that they're Jewish, but don't feel any particular need to be part of the kahal. According to the AJYB, they should be counted as Jews, but they're not...why not? Because their flimsy "survey" only asks about people who identify with the local community when they call around to synagogues out in Podunk, USA. Not that a miscalculation in the number of Jews in Eau Claire is going to have a great affect on the total Jewish population, by whatever definition of Jews that's used, whether by the AJYB or anyone else, but the community here is just one of hundreds across the US, and I have a hard time believing this is the only place that's been erroneously enumerated. So, like I said, it's moot. Spending much time arguing over its accuracy is time wasted. The whole article should just be changed to read "not many" or "not enough".  :-\ Tomer ^TALK 05:51, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

New JPPPI numbers

I note that the JPPPI, under Sergio DellaPergola et cie, has released new numbers which estimate as of 2005, at http://www.jpppi.org.il/JPPPI/SendFile.asp?TID=67&FID=2377 (it's a PDF). I had assumed that these numbers are newly authoritative; the 2005 estimates are indeed estimates but, then, so are all previous numbers too I imagine -- it is hard to believe that an exhaustive census was conducted! Anyway, writing to let folks know about it. Jewish diaspora now reflects these numbers although, if there is a good reason not to do so that I am missing, that would be fine too. --AnotherBDA 06:21, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

I looked at the JPPPI report, and we can certainly include it, though I wonder what the methodological differences are from the World Jewish Population 2002 report, as it is lower by 200,000 people, yet that seems to come from data revisions and not population changes. I think it might be better to wait for the full WJP to come out in the next few months. --Goodoldpolonius2 14:34, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Ancient Roman Empire?

How about some information about the population of Jews in ancient Rome? Not neccesarily just the middle east but the empire as a whole? Flyerhell 04:44, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

It would be welcome if anyone has citable numbers. If someone wants to follow this up, it might be in Harry J. Leon, The Jews of Ancient Rome (Philadelphia 1960). - Jmabel | Talk 00:13, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Major overhaul (moves, merges, renames, and additions)

Hello Wikipedians. Based on talk discussions and merge templates, I was bold and shuffled a ton of content tonight. In summary:

• I moved all historical population data (particularly from Jewish population) to Jews by country/Historical comparison and then renamed that article Historical Jewish population comparisons.
• I merged all current population data from Jews by country to Jewish population.
• I repurposed Jews by country to house a table that offers links to articles about current Jews in a country, the history of Jews in that country, and the "List of Jews" of that country.
• I redirected Lists of Jews by country to Jews by country.
• I added a "Total population" section to Jewish population.

I tried to move all the references properly, but please feel free to check things over. Several of the tables need to be converted into Wiki syntax, and I will try to get to that.

I am cross-posting this message to:

• Talk:Jews by country
• Talk:Jewish population
• Talk:Historical Jewish population comparisons
• Talk:Lists of Jews by country

Thanks! — Reinyday, 08:19, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Merge With World Jewry

I am very much for the merging of this article with the more lucidly termed World Jewry. If you read the above editors points, you like I will realize all our content is too confusing and falling short of any real categories. Chavatshimshon 11:44, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Not sure what "above editors" you mean. "Jewry" is a word frequently used in antisemitic writings, usually for scaremongering. "Population" is neutral and much more common in scholarly works. Beit Or 16:31, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I put my Google filter off and made a search for 'Jewry'. Besides for the fact that in my readings and in everyday life Jewry is not the oft negative term you say it is, the first hundred result I looked didn't allege your case. I also did a search on a few ani-semitic websites like jewwatch and didnt find the word Jewry. Please study your claim, it is simply ficticious. Chavatshimshon 17:43, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Historically, post-exile and pre-Haskalah, Jewry is a perfectly reasonable term. And it remains a reasonable term for a particular group of Orthodox Jews organized under a rabbinate. But it is an absolutely inappropriate term here. As a secular Jew in Seattle, I am certainly part of the world's Jewish population, but I am not part of any "Jewry". - Jmabel | Talk 17:45, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I would also prefer Jewish population to World Jewry. Another benefit of this title is, it makes clear that the article is indeed about population. ←Humus sapiens ^ну? 00:07, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Conflicting Entries

This article ("Jewish population") claims that the number of jews living in the United States is 5,914,682. The article, "Jew", claims that the number of jews in the United States is between 5,300,000 and 5,671,000. Furthermore, "American Jews" claims the number to be 6.4 million. In the interest of consistency, at least two of these articles should be changed.
--137.99.174.125 17:33, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Argentina?

This page lists Argentina's Jewish population as being close to 600,000 (which far surpasses Canada and is on par with France), while the Jew page lists Argentina's Jewish population at only 185,000-250,000. This is a MAJOR discrepancy between the two; what is going on here? --WassermannNYC 13:17, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Russia

According to the last Russia's census there are 229,938 Jews in Russia in 2002. So where the figure of 717,101 is taken from? --Koryakov Yuri 09:32, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

---

I totally aggre with you. I have been shocked by the imprecision brought on this article concerning Russia. Russia is far to be the third most Jewish populated country. All serious studies show that the 3 first countries are : Israel,United-States, and France.

So I write a warning for the users : Please don't put any number juste because you want it. You may be proud of you country, but don't alter the facts. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikipedien (talk • contribs) 03:12, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

---

See Joshua Rothenberg, "How Many Jews Are There in the Soviet Union?", 29 Jewish Social Studies234 (1967) http://www.scribd.com/doc/22155183/ for a discussion on how difficult it was, in the 1960s, to know even grosso modo the Jewish population of the USSR. But "In summing up our calculations we come to the conclusion that the number of Jews who lived in 1959 in the Soviet Union was at least 2,500,000, and probably between 2,600,000 and 2,650,000".

If one accepts that figure (and depending upon how one defines "Jew", for halachically there's always going to be a problem) population movements and population growth or decline can likely (hopefully?) be dealt with using available information and normal statistical tools.

Andygx (talk) 15:05, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Brazil

Hey, I have never edited on a wiki talk page before, so if I screw up on etiquette, sorry. Anyway there seems to be a huge discrepancy between the Brazil Jewish population, between graphs 1 (approx 80 000) & 3 (approx 290 000), does anybody have any idea on how to fix this? I believe they both come from primary resources, so I do not know if the numbers can actually be changed in the graphs. Perhaps the less recent one should be removed?~~BCapp

Iran

Maybe it's just my ignorance, but somehow it seems unlikely that there are, or were in 2002, 20,405 Jews in Iran, given the recent statements made by their leader. Would some one verify this?

Logically I would agree, but they do in fact exist, and even have an allocated amount of seats in the government, along with Christians (jews, christians, and muslims are the 3 recognized religions). Bewilders me too...~~BCapp

"There are 8,756 Jews in the country, according to the [2011 Irainian] census. That was fewer than the 20,000 figure previously estimated." http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5juj_KhuuT0v7aaT3PPDmJFbQYrtw?docId=CNG.174be06ad8ee4755308494817ef96f0e.781

http://www.iran-daily.com/1391/5/10/MainPaper/4294/Page/7/MainPaper_4294_7.pdf

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2912998/posts

http://www.khalije-fars.com/en/item/1215

How do I go about changing/fixing this?

@ BCapp,I think Zoroastrians are recognized as well.

Yaakovaryeh (talk) 04:05, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

I haven't looked at these links and statistics into detail, but I believe the reason for this large difference in number was resulted from the methods the surveys used to consider who is a Jew and who isn't. One census may have included even those who were half Jewish, and the other may have used only those who, for example, said they're religiously and ethnically Jewish. I think we should leave it as it is now. Yambaram (talk) 22:27, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Accuracy of the data in "Largest Jewish populations by country"

The data in this section contradicts the estimates given in Jew by a factor as high as 3 (e.g. Russia, est. 228k in Jew and 717k in this article). The data from Jew seems reliable; it comes from [3]. But I suspect that the data in this section is highly inaccurate: as mentioned in [4] it's a multiplication of Jewish population percentages from [5] by total population figures. This source is not focused on Jewish population in particular, so I would tend to think that in countries like Russia where Jewish population is less than 1% it could lead to very inaccurate figures...

I'm not sure how to fix it though: the source from Jew does not detail the population in every single country. --Croustix 12:30, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

You can't fix it. In most countries Jews are highly discriminated against and exact figures are almost impossible to attain because they are kept bottled up and totally disconnected from the rest of the world. --Dan 9:25, 10 June 2010 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.147.23.185 (talk)

by country list out of date

The list claims that the US has the largest Jewish population - which is no longer true: In 2007 the number of Jews in Israel surpassed the number of Jews in the United States. Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/903585.html. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.106.108.4 (talk) 21:17, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

How can the Jewish population in Israel, ranked #1 with 5,600,000 account for 35.7% of the Jewish world population when the #2 ranked US, with a Jewish population of 5,275,000 (a smaller number) account for 38.62%? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.201.133.35 (talk) 19:56, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

This article is a disgraceful shambles

I need only point out that it states that Brazil has 295k Jews, 100k more than the 195k listed for Argentina. The latest sources I've seen list Argentina's Jewish population at 225k, and Brazil's at around 120k... but our own History of the Jews in Brazil article says 96k for Brazil, and History of the Jews in Argentina says 185-250k...itself a bizarre range of uncertainty (basically, it says 217,500±32,500... in other words, a 15% rate of uncertainty... like saying there are 6.4M Jews in the US, although we give leeway for a range from 5.44M-7.36M. What? Take a smaller community like Gibraltar, with its 584 Jews, as of 2001, according to History of the Jews in Gibraltar... granted the numbers are far easier to nail down for a much smaller community, but by our "rigors" here, this means when we say there are 584 Jews in Gibraltar, we're accepting that there are really somewhere between 496 and 672 Jews in Gibraltar. That's great if we're looking for wiggle room, but wiggle room in a Wikipedia article is on par with "weasel wording". Find an authoritative source and use it. And use it consistently. Otherwise get rid of the numbers altogether. Tomer^talk 08:40, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

did you see the history of Jews in Brazil page /

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Brazil that and jewishlibrary give Brazil less than 100,000.Grmike (talk) 10:13, 22 December 2009 (UTC)grmike

Metro Areas

I removed this list because there's no source, I question the accuracy of it and think it's dated. The Greater Toronto Areas jewish population is currently higher then the listed London one and most sources google turns up are from a few years ago. --J2000ca (talk) 14:32, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Changes in numbers without citations

[6]: How can numbers change with no source cited? - Jmabel | Talk 03:07, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

percentage

according to the table there are more jews in Israel than the US, but the US has a higher percentage of all Jews than Israel. That doesn't make any sense. If there's a calculation discrepancy it should be noted in the table. 173.49.91.134 (talk) 04:32, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Another discrepancy: Russia is listed as having 228,000 Jews and 1.5% of all Jews, yet Brazil is listed as having only 96,500 Jews but somehow 1.6% of all Jews. I'd say the percentage for Brazil is definitely a mistake. Can someone please try to find more accurate percentages and numbers for all of these countries? Tad Lincoln (talk) 23:43, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

feel free to fix that. i edited it very fast not because i have some inside knowledge about the real data but because the numbers before i fixed it were off by a lot especially Argentina and Brazil population. rank number 23 is skipped over can you check what country is missed ?Grmike (talk) 10:10, 22 December 2009 (UTC)grmike

Now it's the reverse. The table shows more Jews in the US than Israel, yet a larger percentage of the world Jewish population in Israel. Obviously that's quite impossible. 75.76.213.106 (talk) 06:33, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

British Empire

I notice that most Jews those days live in countries that were once dependencies of the British Empire (or in territories taken over by such countries). I wonder how come...? 68.83.179.156 (talk) 05:18, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Over estimate for US Jewish population

The US Jewish population, according to two surveys--the 2001 NJPS, as well as the AJIS, is significantly lower than the numbers listed here. The numbers are closer between 5.1 million (NJPS) and 5.3 million (AIJS). The discrepancy in numbers is the result of significant double counting and uneven methodology used in the many independent local studies that were added together to get the 6.4 million figure. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.81.59.132 (talk) 20:25, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Indeed true, I correct it. Benjil (talk) 13:40, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

I can't think of a better source for population statistics than a census. Estimates are great when no one's counted but here we have a count. Sol (talk) 23:35, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Please read about this number before - there has been many double counting and methodology problems and I don't even speak about the definition of Jewishness. The Sergio Dellapergola report is the most respected source for Jewish demography, not an American census. Benjil (talk) 05:11, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Poor citation for Netherlands

The current citation for the Netherlands is just a link to http://www.nidi.knaw.nl/web/html/public/demos/dm01091.html. This appears to be just a "front page" for the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographics Institute, and says nothing about Jewish population. - Jmabel | Talk 04:39, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Ethiopia

where are Ethiopians there are 3 millions of them--Alismani (talk) 07:48, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

unreliable & unsourced series of edits

Please check these changes--JimWae (talk) 23:56, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Colombia does not appear in first table of population

The first table puts Denmark and Azerbaijan in positions 32 and 33, however, according to the data on the bottom Colombia has 6,436 which places it on the 32 position right after Panama in the initial table. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.3.193.227 (talk) 16:40, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Sri Lanka - Three Jews?

Just reading this out of curiosity, and I found the notation that there are three Jews in Sri Lanka. I wasn't able to find a citation for that, and couldn't find any support in a (quick) Google search. Does anyone know where this information came from? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.18.53.215 (talk) 08:18, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Are people of English ancestry Anglicans?

The "official data" regarding Jews in the U.S. actually is a count of people living in the U.S. who describe themselves as being of Israeli ancestry. I don't think that could rationally be called a count of Jews any more than you can count Catholics by how many describe themselves as being of Vatican ancestry.

United Kingdom Data should link to the census

The 'official figures' section for UK data links to the number of Israelis - the official government census data should be used instead. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aapter (talk • contribs) 11:21, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

India

There is a very large community of Jews in India albeit it having lost its former glory.Someone should add India to the list. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.219.224.55 (talk) 15:30, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

Racist Reporting?

One of the websites used to cite the number of Jews living in the United States is "Unity of Nobility" a clearly anti-Semitic and "pro-white European" website. I wholeheartedly disagree with the content of the site, but more importantly I don't believe it should be cited when writing an encyclopedia entry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.239.180.72 (talk) 16:15, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

USA Census

Based on the US Government census 2011 the Jewish population in the USA is 6,544,000 so I changed it to that number is it is probably the best source out of many sources — Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.2.231.209 (talk) 04:29, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, good catch. I accidentally reverted you, but has reinserted your version as it corresponds to the source.Jeppiz (talk) 10:29, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

USA Census can't be accurate

The enlarged Jewish population may be 6.5 million, but there is no way there are that many Jews in the US. For one, if there are indeed 6.5 million Jews in the US and another 6 million in Israel, that would mean that 12.5 out of the 13 million Jews in the world live in either then US or Israel. What about the 500,000 Jews in France, 300,000 in Canada, the 260,000 in Britain, 205,000 in Russia, 180,000 in Argentina, and so on?

Aside from that, the census may have counted the enlarged Jewish population (notice that the sources for core and enlarged populations are from totally different site), but I this source, which puts the core population at 5,425,000, is a better estimate.--RM (Be my friend) 20:47, 21 April 2013 (UTC)

Poland

Ok, we all know what happened in WWII. But is it possible that in Poland, with 38,500,000 people, there are no Jews left? Not even a few thousand? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.108.212.170 (talk) 18:22, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

New Zealand

Why isn't New Zealand on this list? According to the article History of the Jews in New Zealand, there are thousands. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.174.107.243 (talk) 02:03, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

Syria

According to this jewish article there are about 50 jews living in Damascus currently. There is also no proof that all jews left Syria, I would assume that this was never exactly documented. http://www.vosizneias.com/140370/2013/09/01/damascus-amid-civil-war-syrias-remaining-jews-to-celebrate-high-holy-days/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.8.235.103 (talk) 12:55, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Problem with chart

I added more sources and organized the colums, but there seems to be a problem displaying the chart. For some reason, Israel ended up alone on the right side. If anyone knows how to fix this, please do so because I wasn't able to. Thanks, Yambaram (talk) 18:22, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

I see that someone fixed it, good. I just made some major improvements to the article: I removed the "rank" section as it caused mess and because the exact number of Jews in every country is impossible to determine and is changing every year. I also put all the empty URL links into the proper form, and removed repeating sources as well as external links which weren't directly related to the article. The article is still missing some counties and needs additional citation for verification, but it looks much better though. Yambaram (talk) 12:12, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

What about other Jewish Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites?

There are dozens of groups throughout the world which claim they're Jews. Some of them even had their Jewish connection verified by DNA tests, and I think their number adds up to about a million overall. Should we include them in the article, and if so, how exactly? Comments are welcomed. -Yambaram (talk) 15:09, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

0.2 vs 0.02

There is an 'edit-war' going on disputing if it is 0.2% or 0.02% of the world's population. (t) Josve05a (c) 02:24, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for bringing this up. The current figure is obviously 0.2%, it's simple math. Will fix this now... Yambaram (talk) 11:29, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

It doesn't matter whether the math is correct, what matters is citation from a reliable source. Please find an RS that lists .2%, because I found the Random House historical book Jews and Power that mentions .02% as the correct figure. That is one of two current references supporting that sentence on the article.--ɱ (talk) 14:32, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

Okay. I don't know where it says this wrong figure it in the book you're talking about, but mistakes happen. Having accepted your challenge, here are various reliable sources that say Jews make up 0.2% of the world's population:

• A Ynet article - [7]
• The Jewish Press article - [8]
• A Jewish News One video - [9]
• A Haaretz article - [10]
• And lastly, this report.

Assuming there are 7,000,000,000 people in the world, of which 14,000,000 are Jewish, the rest can simply be done in the head or using a calculator. -Yambaram (talk) 15:43, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

Something else I wanted to raise here... Recently, User:Halma10 completely transformed the article, changing the lead section, removing tens of sources, and adding new sections to the chart. First of all, I really do appreciate Halma10's effort. But I think we should rely on more than one source, and also I'm not sure where some of the "law of return" numbers came from, and if they're relevant at all. What do you guys think of the current version, as opposed to the previous one? Thanks, -Yambaram (talk) 15:53, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

First off, I specified page 188 of that book. The book is freely available on Google Books and other online sources. You can view the information easily there. Secondly, the book appears to be an unbiased historical record published by a reliable and world-known source. Your links are all internet news and video sites, with information from Jewish and/or Israeli sources, except for the last one, which provides no information on the author, publisher, publication date, source of data, or anything relevant to assessing the reliability of the information or source. So when relying upon sources, clearly the .02 fact appears to be backed by a much better source. Thirdly, I strongly support Halma10's edits on cleanup and preventing vandalism and other changes. Earlier, the chart was too volatile, with editors and IPs changing data very frequently, often putting countries out of order or messing up the formatting of the template. With Halma10's edits, the chart will be much more stable, as it relies on a single comprehensive and reliable source with complete data. The "law of return" numbers appear to come from that same source, and are relevant as a method of assessing the number of Jews in a country.--ɱ (talk) 17:16, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

I find it ironic that we're still having an argument about this figure. Before you look at the large collection of books which verify "my" number, if we look at the very book you used (page 188 isn't viewable for me), we see on page 271 that it says there are 2 Jews per a population of 1,000, which equals 0.2% of 100...

I mean, if that book accidentally claimed that there are actually 140 million Jews in the world, would you insist we should keep it in the article? Anyway, in other books I searched I found the 0.2% figure, here's a collection of them: [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17]. -Yambaram (talk) 21:30, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

Also, I like the current version of the article, but think it's important to provide as many reliable sources from different independent causes as possible. I'll not touch the chart structure/organization, but will see how I can bring some of these good sources back. -Yambaram (talk) 21:34, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

Go ahead. Just make sure to change the citations to that sentence to reflect the changed information. I'd cite at least two of the above links.--ɱ (talk) 23:13, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

pakistan

i am pretty sure no sane jew lives in pakistan. what are you sources for this country?— Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.116.9.141 (talk) 23:16, 13 February 2014

 Done--ɱ (talk) 04:23, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Definition of "core Jewish population"

The article provides none. Is it defined as people of full Jewish descent, people of Jewish matrilineal descent, people of more than half Jewish descent? Does it exclude Jews who have converted to another religion and/or are non-observant? 213.109.230.96 (talk) 12:55, 30 May 2014 (UTC)

Usually it describes people with at least one Jewish parent and who describe themselves as fully Jewish. It depends on the study.Benjil (talk) 14:22, 30 May 2014 (UTC)

Misleading Picture

Does the picture (of jews per country) seem objective to anyone? the jews are 0.2% of the world population. Even the picture of Islam per country doesn't seem so emphasize, and they 20% of the world's population.

You're right, the photo does look very objective. It looks factual, doesn't appear to be biased towards or against any one group or organization, and doesn't look like it's influenced by personal feelings or opinions.--ɱ (talk) 03:08, 31 May 2014 (UTC)

1. I mean it doesn't look objective at all. A group of 15 M present in the picture like they're a quarter of the world. There's no even explanation how amount each coloring represent. For example - dark blue stands for..? and light blue? (does it stand for 5% of the population? or 10%?.. etc.). It's just so unclear and obscure. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.117.142.136 (talk) 01:34, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

2. There are a lot of discrepancies in the article. In China there are "3,000 jews" which is "0.000%" of the population. and yet, China is colored (in the picture) with blue. This picture is just wrong, doesn't make any of sense and incompatible to the article itself.

The picture presents the repartition of the Jewish population relative to itself not to world population. The idea is to see where are the countries with the most Jews, not to compare with the rest of the world. Maybe some things can be corrected but that's all. Benjil (talk) 08:39, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

So it's supposed to be written below the picture, Doesn't it? because it's unclear. Anyhow, China been colored still incorrect (and that's only the mistakes I noticed).