The Berman Jewish DataBank report on United States Jewish Population, 2017 written by Dr. Ira M. Sheskin and Dr. Arnold Dashefsky, derives from Chapter 5 of the American Jewish Year Book, 2017 (of which the authors of the U.S. Jewish Population article are co-editors). 

Jewish Population Estimate: AYJB 2017

Based on a simple summation of local Jewish community estimates (which are detailed in the Appendix), the estimated size of the American Jewish community in 2017 is 6.851 million Jews, a decrease of about 5,300 Jews from the 2016 estimate. Allowing for some double counting, the American Jewish Year Book estimate is 6.7 - 6.8 million; this estimate is based on the aggregation of local estimates of more than 900 American Jewish communities and parts thereof. The bulk of the estimate is based on studies conducted over the past decade.

Section I: Population Estimation Methodology discusses the multiple sources of Jewish population estimates used in the article.

In Section III of the report (pp. 11-12), the authors compare the 2016 AJYB estimate to recent estimates from the Pew Research Center in 2013 and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis in 2015 - all of which are "..in general agreement."

The precise number of Jews used in all tabular analyses in the Year Book article is 6,850,865.

Organization of data presentation:

♦ Table 1  Regional estimates of the number of Jewish persons, which shows (for example) that 44.6% of American Jews live in the Northeastern Census Region compared to 17.4% of the total US population.

♦ Table 2 provides a state-by-state estimate of the number of Jewish persons, the percentage of each state's population which is Jewish, and the percentage of each state of the total number of Jews in the United States..

♦ Table 3 shows the Jewish population of the largest 21 MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas), while Table 4 lists the top 20 largest Combined Statistical Areas).

♦ Table 5 lists Jewish population estimates for Jewish Federation service areas where the Jewish population is at least 20,000.

♦ Table 6 shows US Jewish population estimates by STATE for 1971 and 2017, indicating numerical and percentage changes over the time period.  

♦ In Table 7, Jewish population change 1971-2017 is analyzed by Census Region.  Thus, while 44.6% of Jews live in the Northeast in 2016, in 1971, the comparable percentage was 63.2%.

♦ Table 8 organizes available data from local Jewish communities focusing on the couples intermarriage rate from the latest study available for each community listed.

Table 9 is an exceptionally useful analysis which compares the couples rate by community (for 29 communities with at least two studies) from the earliest study to the most recent study in that community. 

♦ For example, the first entry notes that between 1986 and 2004, the percent of intermarried couples in San Francisco increased from 27% to 55%. 

♦ The last entry shows that for the Tidewater, VA area, from 1988 to 2001 the intermarriage rate remained at 33% of married couples where one spouse was Jewish.

Maps 

♦ The report includes 19 maps of the Jewish population in the United States.  These maps are integrated into the 2017 report, but are also available as a separate download.  The maps visually summarize America's Jewish population distribution by census region (definitions of areas in Map 1), in 1971 and 2017 (Maps 2-4), by U.S. county (map 5), and then by region of the United States (maps 6-19).

♦ Appendix A -  the listing of the number of Jewish persons in all US local communities with at least 100 Jewish residents - is integrated into the report in 2017.  Beginning on PDF page 93, it provides the number of Jewish persons in communities of at least 100 or more Jews, organized by State and then by communities withing each state.

The companion Appendix A excel file includes detailed comments on sources and dates of the local community estimates.

This article on United States Jewish Population, 2017 is published as Current Jewish Population Reports, # 19, 2017 of the Berman Jewish DataBank at The Jewish Federations of North America, and is posted with permission of Springer, the current publisher of the American Jewish Year Book.  The article derives from Chapter 5 of the 2017 American Jewish Year Book.

The Year Book had been published in 108 volumes from 1899 to 2008, until succeeded by the new Yearbook, edited by Dashefsky and Sheskin. 

The Table of Contents of the 2017 Yearbook is reproduced in the first few pages of this document.  In 2017, multiple articles on America's Jewish population are included as chapters 1-4.  

Citing Report:

Springer is permitting us to post this Report on line with open access, but requests that the citation be to the American Jewish Year Book itself: Ira M. Sheskin and Arnold Dashefsky. “United States Jewish Population, 2017” in Arnold Dashefsky and Ira M. Sheskin. (Editors) The American Jewish Year Book, 2017, Volume 117 (2017) (Dordrecht: Springer) pp. 179-184.

Following standard bibliographic practices, this could be followed by "...as found at the Berman Jewish DataBank: http://www.jewishdatabank.org.

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FUNDING and SUPPORT:

AJYB 2017 was produced with the generous support of The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Connecticut, the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University of Connecticut, the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami, as well as the Jewish Demography Project at the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies at the University of Miami, and The George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies at the University.