Israel
at Nearly Half of the World’s Jews
Live in Israel
JNS.org Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
A t the start of 2022, there were 15.3 million
Jews in the world, 7 million of whom, roughly
46% of all Jews worldwide, resided in Israel,
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics revealed on April
16. In 1939, on the eve of World War II, Jews numbered
16.6 million, and 449,000 (3%) resided in the land of
Israel. Just under 10 years later, in 1948, the world’s
Jewish population had diminished to 11.5 million; of
them, 650,000 (6%) lived in Israel.

Among Diaspora Jews, about 6 million live in
the United States, 442,000 in France, 392,000 in
Canada, 292,000 in Britain, 173,000 in Argentina,
145,000 in Russia, 118,000 in Germany and another
118,000 in Australia, according to the report.

Ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which
begins on the evening of April 17, the CBS also
revealed that 147,199 Holocaust survivors or victims
of antisemitic actions during the Holocaust are living
in Israel.

Of those survivors, 61% are women and 39% are
men. A small number, 4.5%, immigrated to Israel
before the establishment of the state, between
1933 to 1947; 31.7% immigrated during the large
Israelis wave fl ags at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on the eve of Jerusalem Day on May 9, 2021.

aliyah wave following the state’s establishment
(1948 to 1951); 29.7% immigrated between 1952
and 1989 and 34.1% came since the 1990s, during
the wave of aliyah from the former Soviet Union.

In a 2021 survey, 87% of Israel’s survivors said they
were either “satisfi ed” or “very satisfi ed” with their
lives, similar to the 88% of Jews and others above
the age of 75. However, 17.3% of Holocaust survivors
said they felt lonely often, compared to 12.6% of Jews
and others 75 and older. ■
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