Judaism, 1208 BCE to 2024
From the first mention of Israel, about 1208 BCE, to 15.7 million Jews in 2024: the dated record, the Shoah, Israel and the United States, the branches.
The first mention of Israel outside the Bible is on a stela of the pharaoh Merneptah, dated about 1208 BCE by the Posen Library; Britannica calls it the earliest-known reference to Israel. In 2024 there were 15,736,800 Jews in the world by the core definition used by the demographer Sergio DellaPergola, 45.45% of them in Israel and about 40% in the United States (American Jewish Year Book 2024). Pew’s 2020 estimate is 14.8 million.
The dated record
Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple in 587/586 BCE; the exile ended in 538 BCE; Rome destroyed the Second Temple in August 70 CE. Two rabbinic texts followed: the Mishnah, given final form early 3rd century CE, and the Babylonian Talmud, redacted c. 500–650, in Britannica’s dating. Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. Hasidism dates to its founder, the Baal Shem Tov, c. 1750, and Reform Judaism to a temple in Hamburg in 1818. The First Zionist Congress met in August 1897, and Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948 (Exhibit 36).
36. The written record of Israel begins with an Egyptian stela of about 1208 BCE; Judaism’s rabbinic texts took final form between the 3rd and 7th centuries CE
Source. “Stela of Merneptah”; “Jerusalem: history”; “Babylonian Exile”; “Siege of Jerusalem”; “Mishna”; “Judaism: Babylonia 200–650”; “Judaism: marginalization and expulsion”; “Ba‘al Shem Tov”; “Judaism: religious reform movements”; “Zionist Congress”; “Israel: establishment of Israel”; “Merneptah”
Full sizeMethod. Dates as given by the cited source.
Population since 1880
DellaPergola’s revised series puts world Jewry at 7.8 million in 1880 and 16.5 million on the eve of the Second World War. By May 1945 it was 11.0 million. In his words, it took 15 years after the war for the population to grow by one million, and “world Jewish population has not yet recovered its estimated size of 16.5M” of 1939 (Exhibit 37).
37. World Jewry numbered 16.5 million in 1939 and 11.0 million in 1945; in 2024, at 15.74 million, it had not regained its prewar size
Source. DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024, Table 8.1, revised estimates.
Full sizeMethod. “Core” Jewish population counts people who identify as Jews and do not profess another religion. The 2024 figure is DellaPergola’s original estimate; earlier years are his revisions.
Net growth since 1945 has been in Israel; the diaspora as a whole shrank. The share of world Jewry living there rose from 0.47% in 1900 to 8.97% in 1950 and 45.45% in 2024 (Exhibit 38). Between 1970 and 2024 Israel’s Jewish population rose from 2.58 million to 7.15 million, and that of the United States from 5.52 million to 6.30 million, while the Jewish populations of Russia, Ukraine and the other former Soviet republics fell by 85% to 99% (Exhibit 39).
Source. DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024, Table 8.1.
Full sizeMethod. Before 1948, the territory of the later state.
39. Of the 15 countries charted, Israel added the most Jews from 1970 to 2024 (4.57 million); the former Soviet republics lost the most
Source. DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024, Table 8.6.
Full sizeMethod. The 14 countries with the most Jews in 1970, plus Germany.
40. In 2020 Israel and the United States together held about 85% of the world’s Jews, in Pew’s estimates
Source. Pew Research Center, Religious Composition by Country, 2010–2020, rounded counts; countries with 10,000 or more Jews. Country shapes: Natural Earth.
Full sizeMethod. Circles sit at each country’s geographic center.
The branches
Pew’s 2020 survey of Jewish Americans found 37% identifying as Reform, 17% as Conservative, 9% as Orthodox and 4% with other branches such as Reconstructionist and Humanistic Judaism; 32% named none (Exhibit 41). The young are more Orthodox than the old: 17% of those 18 to 29, against 3% of those 65 and older (Exhibit 42).
41. Among U.S. Jewish adults in 2020, 37% identified as Reform, 17% Conservative and 9% Orthodox; 32% named no branch
Source. Pew Research Center, Jewish Americans in 2020.
Full sizeMethod. Percentages as published.
42. 17% of U.S. Jews ages 18 to 29 identified as Orthodox in 2020, against 3% of those 65 and older
Source. Pew Research Center, Jewish Americans in 2020.
Full sizeMethod. Percentages as published.
Limitations (6)
- Conflicting sources. The number of Jews in the United States depends on definition: 6.3 million (DellaPergola’s core count, 2024) and 7.5 million (Pew’s 2020 net Jewish estimate, including people of no religion who consider themselves Jewish).
- Conflicting sources. The Merneptah stela: the Posen Library dates it to about 1208 BCE; the Center for Online Judaic Studies to about 1207 BCE.
- Conflicting sources. The Babylonian Talmud: Britannica gives c. 500–650 in one article and “up to the 6th century” in another.
- Coverage. Pew counts fewer than 10,000 Jews in many countries as “<10,000”; those countries are not drawn in Exhibit 40.
- Coverage. The Haredi share of Israel’s population is not charted: the figures found (Israel Democracy Institute, Haredi Institute for Public Affairs) differ, and the primary tables were not retrieved.
- Revisions. DellaPergola revises earlier years when new data arrive; his 2024 figure has not yet been revised.
Sources (6)
- Center for Online Judaic Studies: “Stelae and reliefs of Pharaoh Merneptah, c. 1207 BCE”
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: “Jerusalem: history”; “Babylonian Exile”; “Siege of Jerusalem”; “Mishna”; “Judaism: Babylonia 200–650”; “Judaism: marginalization and expulsion”; “Ba‘al Shem Tov”; “Judaism: religious reform movements”; “Zionist Congress”; “Israel: establishment of Israel”; “Merneptah”
- Natural Earth: Admin 0 country boundaries, 1:110m and 1:50m (via world-atlas 2.0.2)
- Pew Research Center: “Jewish Americans in 2020,” May 11, 2021; Religious Composition by Country, 2010–2020, dataset and country table, 2025 (updated Feb. 12, 2026); “How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020,” June 9, 2025
- Posen Library: “Stela of Merneptah”
- Sergio DellaPergola, American Jewish Year Book 2024: “World Jewish Population, 2024” (Springer, 2025; hosted by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics)
Read next
The World’s Religions, part 6 of 7.