United States Has More Jews Than Any other Country

3,600,000 Jews lived in continental United States in 1920, forming nearly 3½ per cent. of the total population of that year, according to new statistics compiled by Dr. H. S. Linfield, director of the Department of Information and Statistics, of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research, and published in the "American Jewish Year Book" just off the press. The above figure was arrived at by the author by taking the number of Jews of 1917-1918 and adding to it the natural increase of the Jewish population and the net increase of Jewish immigration during the period between 1917-1918 and 1920. The United States at present has more Jews than any other country in the world. Next come Poland with 3 500,000 and Russia, with 3, 130,000 Jews.

The total Jewish population of the world, according to the author’s revised statistics, is over 15,500,000. This is a conservative estimate being based on the latest census of available reliable estimates. Over two-thirds of the Jewish population of the world live in the continent of Europe; 25% in North and South America; and only 7½% of the total Jewish population live in Asia, Africa and Australia.

In the continent of -Europe, 8,750,000 are concentrated in what Dr. Linfield calls, the "Jewish" Central Europe, a region comprising the countries of Ukraine, Crimea, White Russia, West Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Roumania, Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia, and Austria. The Jews constitute 8,1% of the total population of the "Jewish" Central Europe. To the west and south of this "Jewish" Central Europe, there live 1,600,000 Jews against a total population of 260,000,000, a little more than one-half of 1% of the total population; while to the north of the "Jewish" Central Europe, the Jewish population is even smaller, 185,000 against a total population of 84,000,000, a little over one-fifth of 1%.

3,850,000 Jews live in North and South America: 3,600,000 in the United States, 126,000 in Canada, and 100,000 in Argentine; the remainder, 24,000, live in Alaska, Porto Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Curacao, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

In Asia, the Jews are most populous in Palestine. In 1922, 84,000 Jews lived in Palestine, constituting over 11% of the total population. Next come the neighboring Semitic countries of Syria, Mesopotamia and Arabia, with a Jewish population of 142,000, not quite 1.5% of the total population. In Asia Minor, Central Asia and Siberia, nearly 350,000 Jews live among a total population of nearly 59,000,000, constituting a little over one half of 1% of the total population; while in Japan, China, India, and beyond, 27,000 Jews are scattered among a total of 714,000,000.

In Africa, nearly 400,000 Jews live in the Mohammedan Arabic speaking countries of North Africa, 1,4% of the total population. In East Africa, 50,000 Falashas live in Abyssinia and nearly 50,000 Jews live in Union of South Africa, constituting nearly 4% of the White population of that country.

In all of Australasia, there are not more than 24,000 Jews. Nearly 800,000 Jews live under the British flag and 500,000 Jews in France and her dependencies along the Meditterranean Sea. 295,000 Jews live in Great Britain and Northern Ireland; 213,000, in the English Dominions (Australia, Canada. Irish Free State, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa); 165,000, in France (European departments); and 335,000 live in Algeria, Morocco, Tunis and Syria. The Jewish population is "denser" in the British Dominions than in Great Britain itself. The Jewish population constitutes 0.8% in the Dominions and 0.7% in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Similarly, the Jews form not quite one half of 1% of the total population of France, but 5.5% of the total population of Algeria, Morocco, Tunis and Syria.

The most populous Jewish city in the world is New York with its 1,643,000 Jews. Next come Warsaw, 309,000 and Vienna, 300,000. Proportionally, the Jews form 33.3% of the total population of Warsaw, but 29% of the total population of New York and 16% of the total population of Vienna.

One feature of Dr. Liafield’s article "Statistics of Jews" in the "American Jewish Year Book" of this year, is a summary of the Jewish population of Canada, sixth census, 1921. In that year 126,000 Jews lived in Canada. In 1911, there were 75,000 Jews; and in 1901, there were but 16,000 Jews in all of Canada. At the latter date, the Jews formed less than one third of 1% of the total population of that country. Ten years later, it jumped to over 1%; and in 1921, the Jews constituted nearly 1½% of the total population of Canada. The Jews are concentrated chiefly in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg, but the distribution of the Jews in that country is extensive, there being only three cities with a general population of 5,000 or over in which there were no Jewish resident in 1921.