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Executive Summary

Key findings in the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01 include:

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Demography The Jewish population in the U.S. totals 5.2 million people, consisting of an estimated 4.1 million adults and 1 million children in households and 100,000 Jews in institutional settings. Jews reside in 2.9 million households with a total of 6.7 million people, both Jews and non-Jews. The median age of the Jewish population is older than it was ten years ago and older than the median age of the total U.S. population now.  Twenty percent of the Jewish population is under the age of 18, and 19% is over the age of 65.

Relative to the total U.S. population, Jews tend to marry at later ages.

Jewish women have somewhat lower fertility rates than all U.S. women, and Jewish fertility rates are below population replacement levels.

More Jews live in the Northeast than any other region, but many native-born Jews have migrated to the South and West over the course of their lifetimes.

Relative to the total U.S. population, Jews are more highly educated, have more prestigious jobs and earn higher household incomes.

Jewish Connections

Jews connect to their community, traditions and other Jews in a variety of ways.

Most Jews participate in selected holidays and forms of cultural involvement, maintain strong social connections to other Jews, and regard being Jewish as very important.

Smaller proportions of Jews – ranging from a quarter to a half – are variously engaged in other aspects of Jewish life as well, such as synagogue affiliation, charitable giving, volunteering, and many ritual observances.

Jews in the Northeast lead in most indicators of Jewish involvement, while Jews in the West trail.

Adults age 35-64 display strength and stability in selected indicators of Jewish involvement and declines in others, suggesting diversity in over-time trends.

Jews who belong to Jewish institutions are substantially more engaged in other forms of Jewish life than Jews who do not.

American Jews maintain multiple social and attitudinal connections to Israel. Ties to Israel are powerfully associated with communal affiliation, strongest in the Northeast and least strong in the West.

More Jews give to non-Jewish philanthropic causes than to Jewish causes.

Fewer younger adults than older adults give to all causes.  The gap in giving between younger and older Jews is larger for Jewish than non-Jewish causes, and larger still for federation than other Jewish causes.

A greater proportion of Jewish children attend day schools than ever before, and a greater proportion of Jewish college and graduate students take Jewish studies courses than ever before.

Intermarriage

The intermarriage rate for Jews who have married since 1996 is 47%.

Differences between intermarriage rates reported in the 1990 Highlights Report and this report are due to differences between the "born Jewish" definition used for the 1990 analysis and the "currently Jewish" definition used in this report.

Both definitions show intermarriage slightly increasing since 1985, but at a much slower rate than during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Intermarriage is more common among young adults, Jews in the West, Jews with no or less intensive forms of Jewish education, those with lower levels of secular education, and the adult children of intermarried parents.  Among adult Jews with intermarried parents, those raised Jewish are less likely to be intermarried than those not raised Jewish.

In-married Jews maintain more Jewish connections and greater engagement with Jewish life than intermarried Jews.

Almost all children of in-married spouses are being raised Jewish, compared to one-third of the children of intermarried spouses.

Special Topics

Relative to other Jewish adults, more elderly (age 65 and over) live alone, have low incomes, and report both poor health and health conditions that limit daily activities.

Many elderly Jews remain actively engaged in the Jewish community.  Relative to Jews under age 65, greater or nearly equal proportions of elderly Jews affiliate with Jewish institutions, give to Jewish causes, and participate in communal programs and activities. 

Over 335,000 Jewish adults are immigrants who have come to this country since 1980. About two-thirds of these immigrants are from the former Soviet Union (FSU).

Jewish immigrants from the FSU are older, more concentrated in the Northeast, have fewer children and report lower incomes than non-FSU Jewish immigrants.

Ethnic ties and attachments are important components of the Jewish connections among FSU immigrants.

Five percent of Jewish households report incomes below the U.S. government's poverty line. An estimated 353,000 people, including 272,000 adults and 81,000 children, live in poor Jewish households.

Poverty is more common among the Jewish elderly, immigrants, single mothers, those with a high school education or below, and those who are not currently employed.

Adults living in households under the poverty line report poorer health and more health conditions that limit daily activities.

Many Jews in poor households join Jewish organizations and contribute to the Jewish community, but they do so less frequently than Jews in other households.

Poor Jews are equally likely or more likely than other Jews to observe individual rituals such as lighting Shabbat and Chanukah candles and keeping kosher, and they have equally strong or stronger ethnic attachments than other Jews.

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