May 9, 2024, New York, NY…The eight-county New York area continues to be home to the greatest concentration of Jewish people of any metropolitan area in the United States, according to UJA-Federation of New York’s Jewish Community Study of New York 2023. Released today, the study, is based on nearly 6,000 questionnaires that were completed during the spring of 2023. The study examines and reports on community size, demographics, poverty, mental health, Jewish ritual observance, and participation in Jewish programs.
“The 2023 Jewish Community Study of New York offers a comprehensive snapshot of our community. Particularly in this challenging moment, these insights will help guide funding decisions so we can reach people where they are and ensure the strength of our Jewish community and the institutions serving them,” said Eric S. Goldstein, CEO, UJA-Federation of New York.
In the report, UJA does not make direct comparisons about the change in Jewish population from 2011 — the year of the last New York Jewish population study — to 2023 because of methodological differences between the two studies, including mode differences in how the two surveys were conducted (telephone interviews compared to web-based surveys), survey identification processes, and weighting procedures. As a result, when considering the change in the population over time, the 2023 study presents a historical view (looking back to studies in both 1991 and 2002) to provide long-term population trends. Over the past three decades, the New York area has experienced broad stability in the total number of Jewish adults and children in the eight-county area, with the Jewish population hovering around 1.4 million people.
Key findings:
Total Jewish Population:
|
Jewish Adults |
Jewish Children |
Jewish People |
|
|
Bronx |
29,000 |
4,000 |
33,000 |
|
Brooklyn |
305,000 |
157,000 |
462,000 |
|
Manhattan |
237,000 |
40,000 |
277,000 |
|
Queens |
126,000 |
23,000 |
150,000 |
|
Staten Island |
35,000 |
2,000 |
38,000 |
|
Subtotal |
732,000 |
227,000 |
960,000 |
|
Nassau |
177,000 |
45,000 |
222,000 |
|
Suffolk |
77,000 |
7,000 |
85,000 |
|
Westchester |
88,000 |
16,000 |
105,000 |
|
Subtotal |
343,000 |
68,000 |
412,000 |
|
Total |
1,076,000 |
296,000 |
1,372,000 |
Poverty
· Nearly 1 in 5 Jewish households (20%) is poor or near-poor, with incomes under 250% of the federal poverty guideline.
· In the eight-county area, 147,000 Jewish households are poor or near-poor, representing about 428,000 people.
· More than a third of children in Jewish households (36%) live in or near poverty.
· Jewish poverty is concentrated in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island.
· 33% of Jewish households received government benefits.
Denomination
· 20% of Jewish households identify as Reform.
· 19% of Jewish households identify as Orthodox.
· 15% of Jewish households identify as Conservative.
· 47% of Jewish households report no or some other denominational identification.
· There are approximately 430,000 Jews who live in Orthodox households, comprising 249,000 adults and 181,000 children.
Demographics
· In 2023, there were an estimated 13,000 Holocaust survivors living in Jewish households in the eight-county area, 92% of whom lived in New York City. The largest number of these individuals live in Brooklyn, accounting for 65% of the total number of survivors in the eight-county area.
· 14% of Jewish households include a person who identifies as LGBTQ+.
· The overall percentage of married couples who are intermarried is 37%.
· In the eight-county area, 28% Jewish adults are above the age of 65.
· One in eight Jewish adults (12%) identifies as non-white (Black, Asian, multiracial, or other) and/or Hispanic. This includes the 7% of Jews who did not identify as white in our study, plus an additional 5% who identified as white and Hispanic.
The U.S. Census is prohibited from asking questions about religion, so the 2023 Jewish Community Study of New York is the prime source of information about the Jewish community in the current moment. The survey collected data from a cross-sectional, representative sample of New York-area adults who live in a Jewish household. The geographic scope is the New York eight-county area — the five New York City boroughs, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties.
A complete methodological report can be found online at: https://communitystudy.ujafedny.org/methodology. UJA-Federation contracted with the research firm SSRS to design this study and collect the data. The margin of error for the entire sample of adults in Jewish households is ± 1.5 percentage points.
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