Jewish population centers have shifted tremendously over time, due to the constant streams of Jewish refugees

Jewish refugees

In the course of history, Jewish populations have been expelled or ostracised by various local authorities and have sought asylum from antisemitism numerous times...

 created by expulsions, persecution, and officially sanctioned killing of Jews in various places at various times. The 20th century saw a large shift in Jewish populations, due mostly to persecution in Eastern Europe followed by the Holocaust

The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

, migration to the United States and the creation of Israel and subsequent expulsions of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews

Mizrahi Jews

Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...

 from the Arab world.

Ancient and medieval times

The Torah

Torah

Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

 contains a number of statements as to the number of (adult, male) Jews that left Egypt, the descendants of the seventy sons and grandsons of Jacob

Jacob

Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...

 who took up their residence in that country. Altogether, including Levite

Levite

In Jewish tradition, a Levite is a member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi. When Joshua led the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the Levites were the only Israelite tribe that received cities but were not allowed to be landowners "because the Lord the God of Israel himself is their inheritance"...

s, the number given is 611,730. For non-Levites, this represents men fit for military service, i.e. between twenty and sixty years of age; among the Levites the relevant number is those obligated in temple service (males between twenty and fifty years of age). This would imply a population of about 3,000,000. The Census of David

David

David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

 is said to have recorded 1,300,000 males over twenty years of age, which would imply a population of over 5,000,000. The number of exiles who returned from Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

 is given at 42,360. Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...

 declares that Jerusalem at its fall contained 600,000 persons; Josephus

Josephus

Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...

, that there were as many as 1,100,000 slain in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, along with 97,000 who were sold as slave

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

s. However, Josephus also qualifies this count, noting that Jerusalem was sieged during the Passover. The majority of the 1,197,000 would not have been residents of the city, but rather were visiting for the festival. These appear (writes Jacobs) to be all the figures accessible for ancient times, and their trustworthiness is a matter of dispute. 1,100,000 is comparable to the population of the largest cities that existed anywhere in the world before the 19th century, but geographically the Old City of Jerusalem is just a few per cent of the size of such cities as ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

, Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

 Tokyo and Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

 Xi'an

Xi'an

Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty...

. The difficulties of commissariat in the Sinai

Sinai Peninsula

The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...

 desert for such a number as 3,000,000 have been pointed out by John William Colenso

John William Colenso

John William Colenso , first Anglican bishop of Natal, mathematician, theologian, Biblical scholar and social activist.-Biography:Colenso was born at St Austell, Cornwall, on 24 January 1814...

.

In the Hadrian

Hadrian

Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...

ic war of 132-135 AD 580,000 Jews were slain, according to Cassius Dio (lxix. 14). According to Theodor Mommsen

Theodor Mommsen

Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research...

, in the first century C.E. there were no less than 1,000,000 Jews in Egypt, in a total of 8,000,000 inhabitants; of these 200,000 lived in Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

, whose total population was 500,000. Adolf Harnack (Ausbreitung des Christentums, Leipzig, 1902) reckons that there were 1,000,000 Jews in Syria at the time of Nero

Nero

Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....

 in 60's AD, and 700,000 in Judea, and he allows for an additional 1,500,000 in other places, thus estimating that there were in the first century 4,200,000 Jews in the world. Jacobs remarks that this estimate is probably excessive.

As regards the number of Jews in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, Benjamin of Tudela

Benjamin of Tudela

Benjamin of Tudela was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years...

, about 1170, enumerates altogether 1,049,565; but of these 100,000 are attributed to Persia and India, 100,000 to Arabia, and 300,000 to an undecipherable "Thanaim", obviously mere guesses with regard to the Eastern Jews, with whom he did not come in contact. There were at that time probably not many more than 500,000 in the countries he visited, and probably not more than 750,000 altogether. The only real data for the Middle Ages are with regard to special Jewish communities. The Jewish Encyclopedia provides a table of this data http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/table.jsp?table_id=421&volid=11&title=STATISTICS:.

The Middle Ages were mainly a period of expulsions. In 1290, 16,000 Jews were expelled from England

History of the Jews in England

The history of the Jews in England goes back to the reign of William I. The first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070, although Jews may have lived there since Roman times...

; in 1306, 100,000 from France

History of the Jews in France

The history of the Jews of France dates back over 2,000 years. In the early Middle Ages, France was a center of Jewish learning, but persecution increased as the Middle Ages wore on...

; and in 1492, about 200,000 from Spain. Smaller but more frequent expulsions occurred in Germany

History of the Jews in Germany

The presence of Jews in Germany has been established since the early 4th century. The community prospered under Charlemagne, but suffered during the Crusades...

, so that at the commencement of the 16th century only four great Jewish communities remained: Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

, 2,000; Worms

Worms, Germany

Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...

, 1,400; Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

, 10,000; and Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, 3,000 (Heinrich Grätz, Geschichte der Juden x. 29). It has been estimated that during the five centuries from 1000 to 1500, 380,000 Jews were killed during the persecutions, reducing the total number in the world to about 1,000,000. In the 16th and 17th centuries the main centers of Jewish population were in Poland

History of the Jews in Poland

The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the...

 and the Mediterranean countries, Spain excepted.

The modern world

Increase in European Jewish populations before 1900

Date	Population
Netherlands
1829	46,408
1839	52,245
1849	58,626
1859	63,790
1869	68,003
1879	81,693
Hungary
1720	12,656
1785	75,089
1786	77,647
1804	124,128
1805	127,816
1829	202,328
1842	241,632
1850	352,400
1857	413,118
1869	516,658
1880	624,737
1890	725,222
Poland
16th century	200,000
1659	100,000
1764	315,298
1816	212,000
1825	341,125
1826	368,773
1828	384,263
1856	563,000
1868	764,947
1875	860,327
1882	1,045,000
1893	1,229,000
1897	1,333,000
Württemberg
1832	10,670
1846	12,356
1858	11,088
1864	11,610
1871	12,245
1880	13,331
1890	12,639
1900	11,916
Source: The Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906).

Again following Jacobs, Jacques Basnage at the beginning of the 18th century estimated the total number of European Jews at 1,360,000, but according to a census at the First Partition of Poland

Partitions of Poland

The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...

 in 1772, the Jews of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...

 numbered 308,500. As these formed the larger part of the European Jews, it is doubtful whether the total number was more than 400,000 at the middle of the 18th century; and, counting those in the lands of Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, the entire number in the world at that time could not have been much more than 1,000,000.

Assuming that those numbers are reasonable, the increase in the next few centuries was remarkably rapid. It was checked in Germany by the laws limiting the number of Jews in special towns, and perhaps still more by overcrowding; Jacobs gives citations for there being 7,951 Jews at Prague in 1786 and 5,646 in 1843, and 2,214 at Frankfurt in 1811.

Chubinsky  reports that in 1840 the Jews of southern Russia were accustomed to dwell thirteen in a house, whereas among the general population the average was only four to five (Globus, 1880, p. 340). The rapid increase was undoubtedly due to the early age of marriage and the small number of deaths of infants in the stable communities. The chief details known for any length of time are for the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, and Württemberg

Württemberg

Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

; see chart at right.

Jacobs in the Jewish Encyclopedia presents some evidence that Jewish increase in this period may have exceeded that of the general population, but remarks also that such figures of increase are often very deceptive, as they may indicate not the natural increase by surplus of births over deaths, but accession by immigration. This applies especially to Germany during the early part of the 19th century, when Jews from Galicia and Poland seized every opportunity of moving westward. Arthur Ruppin

Arthur Ruppin

Arthur Ruppin was a Zionist thinker and leader. He was also one of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv, and a pioneering sociologist credited as being "The Father Of Jewish Sociology", directing Berlin's Bureau for Jewish Statistics and Demography from 1902 to 1907...

, writing in the late 19th century, when forcible measures were taken to prevent Russian Jews from settling in Germany, showed that the growth of the Jewish population in Germany had almost entirely ceased, owing to a falling birth rate

Birth rate

Crude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year . Another word used interchangeably with "birth rate" is "natality". When the crude birth rate is subtracted from the crude death rate, it reveals the rate of natural increase...

 and, possibly, to emigration. Similarly, during this period, England and the United States showed notable Jewish immigration.

This growth in actual numbers was somewhat offset by conversion away from Judaism. While Halakha

Halakha

Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...

 (Jewish law) says that a Jew who converts is still a Jew, in the climate of persecution that prevailed in much of Europe in this period, conversion tended to be accompanied by a repudiation of Jewish identity, and converts to Christianity generally ceased to be considered part of the Jewish community. The Jewish Encyclopedia gives some statistics on conversion of Jews to Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Greek Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/table.jsp?table_id=425&volid=11&title=STATISTICS: The upshot is that some 2,000 European Jews converted to Christianity every year during the 19th century, but that in the 1890s the number was running closer to 3,000 per year, — 1,000 in Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

, 1,000 in Russia, 500 in Germany, and the remainder in the Anglo-Saxon world. Partly balancing this were about 500 converts to Judaism each year, mainly formerly Christian women who married Jewish men. For Russia, Galicia, and Romania, conversions were dwarfed by emigration: in the last quarter of the 19th century, probably 1,000,000 Jews from this area of Europe emigrated, primarily to the United States, but many also to the United Kingdom.

Toward the end of the 19th century, estimates of the number of Jews in the world ranged from about 6,200,000 (Encyclopædia Britannica

Encyclopædia Britannica

The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...

, 1881) to 10,932,777 (American Jewish Year-Book, 1904–1905). This can be contrasted with estimates of about half that number a mere 60 years earlier. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/table.jsp?table_id=426&volid=11&title=STATISTICS:

The Jewish Encyclopedia article on which this discussion is largely based estimates only 314,000 Sephardic Jews at the end of the 19th century. More recent scholarship tends to suggest that this estimate is low. The same source gives two wildly different estimate for the Falasha, the Ethiopian Jews

Beta Israel

Beta Israel Israel, Ge'ez: ቤተ እስራኤል - Bēta 'Isrā'ēl, modern Bēte 'Isrā'ēl, EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "Community of Israel" also known as Ethiopian Jews , are the names of Jewish communities which lived in the area of Aksumite and Ethiopian Empires , nowadays divided between Amhara and Tigray...

, variously estimating them at 50,000 and 200,000; the former would be comparable to their present-day population.

Population in 1900

The following table is based on a table in the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906, which also places these numbers in context of the distribution of world population at that time. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/table.jsp?table_id=427&volid=11&title=STATISTICS:

	Circa 1900
Region	Population	Percent b
World	11,206,849	100.0
Americas, Total	1,549,621	13.8
North North America North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...  c	1,522,500	13.5
Central Central America Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...	1,000	0.00
South South America South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...	26,121	0.2
Europe, Total	8,966,781	80.0
Russia (1897)	3,872,625	34.6
Poland (Russian Congress Poland The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire... ) (1897)	1,316,776	11.7
Austria (Cisleithania Cisleithania Cisleithania was a name of the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in 1867 and dissolved in 1918. The name was used by politicians and bureaucrats, but it had no official status... , includes Galicia)	1,224,899	10.0
Kingdom of Hungary Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...	851,378	7.5
Germany (1901)	586,948	1.0
Turkey a and Rumelia Rumelia Rumelia was an historical region comprising the territories of the Ottoman Empire in Europe...	282,277	2.5
Romania (1900)	269,015	2.4
United Kingdom	250,000	2.2
Other Europe	312,863	2.7
Asia, Total	300,948	2.6
Other Arabia and Asia Minor Asia Minor Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...  f	95,000	0.8
Palestine	78,000	0.6
Caucasus Caucasus The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...	58,471	0.05
Persia	35,000	0.3
Siberia Siberia Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...	34,477	0.3
Other	51,392	0.4
Africa, Total	372,659	3.3
North North Africa North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...  e	322,659	2.8
Sub-Saharan Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...	50,000	0.4
Oceania g	16,840	0.01

^a Asian regions of Turkey included in Europe. Turkey at this time includes Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...

, where there were 35,000 Jews in Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

; Adrianople had 17,000.

^b Minor discrepancies due to rounding.

^c U.S. and Canada.

^e Including est. 50,000 for Ethiopia

^f Excludes Mesopotamia, which is counted with European Turkey and Rumelia.

1900 compared to 2005

The Jewish population of each country in 1900, taken from Jewish Encyclopedia

Jewish Encyclopedia

The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...

 of 1901-1906 http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/table.jsp?table_id=427&volid=11&title=STATISTICS, is compared to 2005 Jewish population (see Jewish population

Jewish population

Jewish population refers to the number of Jews in the world. Precise figures are difficult to calculate because the definition of "Who is a Jew" is a source of controversy.-Total population:...

). The names of some of the countries were changed (Abyssinia was changed to Ethiopia, Palestine to Israel, British Isles to United Kingdom, Persia to Iran, Servia to Serbia and Montenegro). If the countries names do not match exactly, only "n/a" appears in the 2005 column below. Some other entries are also problematic: for example, "Germany" today is not exactly the same territory as "Germany" in 1900; the figure given for "Austria, Hungary, Poland" in 1900 corresponds to Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 at that time, and would not include all of today's Poland; conversely, it would include the present-day Czech Republic, Slovakia, Transylvania, etc.

Note: The total at the end shows the entire estimated population of the world at that time (1900), not just the listed countries

By country

>

Historical comparison by country

Country	Jews (1900 est.)	% (1900)	Jews (2005 est.)	% (2005)	Pop change	% change
Algeria	51,044	1.07%	100	0.0003%	-50,944	-1.07
Arabia	30,000	0.42%	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Argentina	20,000	0.42%	395,379	1%	375,379	0.58
Asia Minor Asia Minor Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...  and Syria	65,000	0.55%	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Australia	15,122	0.49%	90,406	0.45%	75,284	-0.04
Austria, Hungary, Poland	3,393,053	6.36%	93,224	0.164%	-3,299,829	-6.196
Belgium	12,000	0.18%	51,821	0.5%	39,821	0.32
Bosnia and Herzegovina	8,213	0.58%	1,006	0.025%	-7,207	-0.555
Brazil	2,000	0.01%	95,125	0.051%	93,125	0.041
Bulgaria	33,663	0.9%	2,300	0.031%	-31,363	-0.869
Canada	22,500	0.42%	393,660	1.2%	371,160	0.78
Caucasus Caucasus The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...	58,471	0.77%	23,875	n/a	n/a	n/a
Central America	4,035	0.12%	14,798	0.035%	10,763	-0.085
China and Japan	2,000	0.0004%	2,002	0.0001%	2	-0.0003
Crete Crete Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...	728	0.24%	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Cyprus and Malta	130	0.03%	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Denmark	5,000	0.2%	7,062	0.13%	2,062	-0.07
Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Uruguay	1,000	0.01%	55,870	0.08%	54,870	0.07
Egypt	30,678	0.31%	100	0.0001%	-30,578	-0.31
Ethiopia	50,000	1%	20,000	0.027%	-30,000	-0.973
France	86,885	0.22%	606,561	1%	519,676	0.78
Germany	586,948	1.04%	107,160	0.13%	-479,788	-0.91
Greece	8,350	0.34%	5,334	0.05%	-3,016	-0.29
Guiana Guiana The Guiana Shield is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a 1.7 billion year old Precambrian geological formation in northeast South America that forms a portion of the northern coast. The higher elevations on the shield are called the Guiana Highlands, which is where the... , Venezuela and Colombia	2,000	0.03%	28,810	0.042%	26,810	0.012
Netherlands	103,988	2%	45,000	0.3%	-58,988	-1.7
India	5,405	0.06%	18,228	0.0005%	12,883	1.5
Iran	35,000	0.39%	20,405	0.03%	-14,595	-0.36
Israel	78,000	12%	5,593,000 (2009)http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3707459,00.html	76%	5,515,000	64
Italy	34,653	0.1%	30,213	0.052%	-4,440	-0.048
Luxembourg	1,200	0.5%	655	0.14%	-545	-0.36
Mexico	1,000	0.008%	53,101	0.05%	52,101	0.042
Morocco	109,712	2.11%	5,236	0.016%	-104,476	-2.094
New Zealand	1,611	0.2%	5,447	0.135%	3,836	-0.065
Norway and Sweden	5,000	0.07%	19,243	0.142%	14,243	0.072
Portugal	1,200	0.02%	739	0.007%	-461	-0.013
Romania	269,015	4.99%	6,029	0.027%	-262,986	-4.963
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia	3,872,625	3.29%	717,101	0.5%	-3,155,524	-2.79
Russian Central Asia	12,729	0.16%	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Serbia and Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro was a country in southeastern Europe, formed from two former republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia : Serbia and Montenegro. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was established in 1992 as a federation called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...	5,102	0.2%	1,732	0.016%	-3,370	-0.184
Siberia Siberia Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...	34,477	0.6%	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
South Africa	50,000	4.54%	88,688	0.2%	38,688	-4.34
Spain	5,000	0.02%	48,409	0.12%	43,409	0.1
Suriname	1,121	1.97%	200	0.046%	-921	-1.924
Switzerland	12,551	0.38%	14,978	0.2%	2,427	-0.18
Tasmania Tasmania Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...	107	0.07%	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Tripoli Tripoli Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...	18,680	2.33%	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Tunisia	62,545	4.16%	1,813	0.018%	-60,732	-4.142
Turkestan Turkestan Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...  and Afghanistan	18,435	0.22%	1 Zablon Simintov Zablon Simintov is a Turkmen-Afghan carpet trader and the caretaker of the only synagogue in Kabul. , he is believed to be the sole remaining Afghan Jew still residing in Afghanistan...	n/a	n/a	n/a
Turkey and Eastern Rumelia Eastern Rumelia Eastern Rumelia or Eastern Roumelia was an administratively autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire and Principality of Bulgaria from 1878 to 1908. It was under full Bulgarian control from 1885 on, when it willingly united with the tributary Principality of Bulgaria after a bloodless revolution...	282,277	4.91%	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
United Kingdom	250,000	0.57%	302,207	0.5%	52,207	-0.07
United States	1,500,000	1.97%	6,444,000 (2007)http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/09s0076.pdf	2,2%	4,944,000	0.23
Total	11,273,076	0.683%	14,641,017	0.227%	3,367,941	-0.456

By region

These tables are based on 1900 data. For comparison with the new tables, see Jews by country

Jews by country

This article deals with the practice of Judaism and the living arrangement of Jews in the listed countries.-Judaism by country:-See also:* Who is a Jew?* Jewish ethnic divisions* Ashkenazi Jews* Sephardi Jews* Mizrahi Jews...

. The first percentage, 4th column, is the percentage of population that is Jewish in a region (Jews in the region * 100/total population of the region). The last column shows the Jewish percentage compared to the total Jewish population of the world (Jews in the region * 100/total Jewish population of the world).

Jews in Africa, 1900

Region	Total Population	Jews	% Jewish	% of Jews total
Central Africa	16,280,556	0	0%	0%
East Africa	30,803,074	50,000	0.162%	0.444%
North Africa	21,763,736	272,659	1.253%	2.419%
Southern Africa	16,708,557	50,000	0.299%	0.444%
West Africa	49,526,638	0	0%	0%
Total	135,082,561	372,659	0.276%	3.306%

Jews in Asia, 1900

Region	Total Population	Jews	% Jewish	% of Jews total
Central Asia	23,519,135	89,635	0.381%	0.795%
East Asia	458,411,367	2,000	0.0004%	0.018%
Middle East	34,573,593	490,407	1.418%	4.35%
South Asia	246,899,507	18,228	0.007%	0.162%
Southeast Asia	177,148,927	0	0%	0%
Total	940,552,529	600,270	0.064%	5.325%

Jews in Europe, 1900

Region	Total Population	Jews	% Jewish	% of Jews total
Balkans Balkans The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...	10,358,957	56,056	0.541%	0.497%
Central Europe	53,357,811	3,393,053	6.359%	30.099%
Eastern Europe	123,334,659	3,907,102	3.168%	34.659%
Western Europe	224,603,981	1,373,440	0.611%	12.183%
Total	411,655,408	8,729,651	2.121%	77.438%

Jews in The Americas, 1900

Region	Total Population	Jews	% Jewish	% of Jews total
Caribbean Caribbean The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...	5,923,844	0	0%	0%
Central America	13,143,968	4,035	0.031%	0.036%
North America	93,098,180	1,523,500	1.636%	13.515%
South America	44,382,509	26,121	0.059%	0.232%
Total	156,548,501	1,553,656	0.992%	13.782%

Jews in Oceania, 1900

Region	Total Population	Jews	% Jewish	% of Jews total
Oceania	5,955,956	16,840	0.283%	0.149%

Ranking

Countries ranked by total Jewish population, 1900 on the left and 2005 on the right.

By population

Rank	Country	Jews (1900)	% Jewish (1900)	Country	Jews (2005)	% Jewish (2005)
1	Russia	3,872,625	3.29%	United States	6,444,000 (2007)	2.2%
2	Austria, Hungary, and Poland	3,393,053	6.36%	Israel	5,593,000 (2009)	76%
3	United States	1,500,000	1.97%	Russia	800,000	0.5%
4	Germany	586,948	1.04%	France	606,561	1%
5	Turkey and Eastern Rumelia Eastern Rumelia Eastern Rumelia or Eastern Roumelia was an administratively autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire and Principality of Bulgaria from 1878 to 1908. It was under full Bulgarian control from 1885 on, when it willingly united with the tributary Principality of Bulgaria after a bloodless revolution...	282,277	4.91%	Argentina	395,379	1%
6	Romania	269,015	4.99%	Canada	393,660	1.2%
7	United Kingdom	250,000	0.57%	United Kingdom	350,207	0.5%
8	Morocco	109,712	2.11%	Ukraine	142,276	0.3%
9	Netherlands	103,988	2%	Germany	107,160	0.13%
10	France	86,885	0.22%	Brazil	95,125	0.051%
11	Palestine	78,000	12%	Australia	90,406	0.45%
12	Asia Minor Asia Minor Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...  and Syria	65,000	0.55%	South Africa	88,688	0.2%
13	Tunisia	62,545	4.16%	Belarus	72,103	0.7%
14	Caucasus Caucasus The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...	58,471	0.77%	Hungary	60,041	0.6%
15	Algeria	51,044	1.07%	Mexico	53,101	0.05%
16	South Africa	50,000	4.54%	Belgium	51,821	0.5%
17	Ethiopia	50,000	1%	Spain	48,409	0.12%
18	Iran	35,000	0.39%	Netherlands http://www.nidi.knaw.nl/web/html/public/demos/dm01091.html	45,000	0.2%
19	Italy	34,653	0.1%	Moldova	31,187	0.7%
20	Siberia Siberia Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...	34,477	0.6%	Uruguay	30,743	0.9%
21	Bulgaria	33,663	0.9%	Italy	30,213	0.052%
22	Egypt	30,678	0.31%	Venezuela	25,375	0.1%
23	Arabia	30,000	0.42%	Poland	24,999	0.065%
24	Canada	22,500	0.42%	Chile	20,900	0.131%
25	Argentina	20,000	0.42%	Iran	20,405	0.03%
26	Tripoli Tripoli Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...	18,680	2.33%	Ethiopia	20,000	0.027%
27	Turkestan Turkestan Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...  and Afghanistan	18,435	0.22%	Sweden	18,003	0.2%
28	India	18,228	0.06%	Uzbekistan	17,453	0.065%
29	Australia	15,122	0.49%	Turkey	17,415	0.025%
30	Russian Central Asia Central Asia Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...	12,729	0.16%	Switzerland	14,978	0.2%
31	Switzerland	12,551	0.38%	Panama	10,029	0.33%
32	Belgium	12,000	0.18%	Latvia	9,092	0.397%
33	Greece	8,350	0.34%	Austria	8,184	0.1%
34	Bosnia and Herzegovina	8,213	0.58%	Georgia	7,951	0.17%
35	Serbia and Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro was a country in southeastern Europe, formed from two former republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia : Serbia and Montenegro. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was established in 1992 as a federation called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...	5,102	0.2%	Azerbaijan	7,911	0.1%
36	Spain	5,000	0.02%	Denmark	7,062	0.13%
37	Norway and Sweden	5,000	0.07%	Romania	6,029	0.027%
38	Denmark	5,000	0.2%	New Zealand	5,447	0.135%
39	Central America	4,035	0.12%	India	5,401	0.0005%
40	Guiana Guiana The Guiana Shield is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a 1.7 billion year old Precambrian geological formation in northeast South America that forms a portion of the northern coast. The higher elevations on the shield are called the Guiana Highlands, which is where the... , Venezuela and Colombia	2,000	0.03%	Greece	5,334	0.05%
41	China and Japan	2,000	0.0004%	Morocco	5,236	0.016%
42	Brazil	2,000	0.01%	Kazakhstan	4,100	0.027%
43	New Zealand	1,611	0.2%	Lithuania	3,596	0.1%
44	Portugal	1,200	0.02%	Colombia	3,436	0.008%
45	Luxembourg	1,200	0.5%	Czech Republic	3,072	0.03%
46	Suriname	1,121	1.97%	Slovakia	3,041	0.056%
47	Mexico	1,000	0.008%	Peru	2,792	0.01%
48	Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Uruguay	1,000	0.01%	Costa Rica	2,409	0.06%
49	Crete Crete Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...	728	0.24%	Bulgaria	2,300	0.031%
50	Cyprus and Malta	130	0.03%	Estonia	1,818	0.136%
51	Tasmania Tasmania Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart... (As Colony)	107	0.07%	Tunisia	1,813	0.018%