The number of people in England and Wales who identified themselves as ethnically Jewish has doubled in the past decade, according to an analysis of the national data by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR).

Compared with the 33,770 who identified as ethnically Jewish in the Census 2011, 67,984 did so in last year’s national survey.

However, it remains to be seen how many can be added to the Jewish population overall since some may have also identified themselves as religiously Jewish as well.

“The total enumerated Jewish population is larger than that recorded by religion data alone but we will need to wait to find out just how many,” JPR reported in its Census analysis.

Whereas Jewish was listed in the optional Census question on religion, it was not specifically listed in the question on ethnicity, but respondents could answer “Other” and then write in “Jewish”.

In 2011, three in four of those who identified as ethnically Jewish also identified as religiously Jewish.

Overall, the number of Jews by religion in England and Wales was up by 2.4 per cent from 2011 and by 4.4 per cent from the 259,927 who answered the Census question in 2001.

(The Scottish Census was delayed until March this year. In 2011, there were 5,887 Jews in 2011 in Scotland and 335 in Northern Ireland).

While Jewish numbers are up, the community makes up a slightly smaller proportion of the overall population in England and Wales at 0.46 per cent - compared with 0.47 per cent in 2011 and 0.5 per cent ten years in 2001.

Half of all Jews (according to religion) live in just eight of the 331 boroughs in England and Wales: Barnet, Hertsmere, Hackney, Bury, Salford, Camden, Haringey, and Harrow.

More than half - 53.6 per cent - live in London, although the number in the capital dropped from 150,329 in 2001 and 149,789 in 2011 to 145,446 last year.

The strongest growth, JPR said, “has been in East of England - which includes Hertfordshire- growing by 21 per cent. But the second strongest growth was surprisingly, in the South West, which grew by 16 per cent and recorded 7,387 Jewish people in 2021.”

While it was “too soon” to assess the growth in the South-West, “one possibility may be related to people moving out to more rural areas during the pandemic. It is also possible that the pandemic influenced the slight decline recorded in the size of London’s Jewish population over the decade.”

The Jewish population of Greater Manchester rose by 12 per cent from 25,013 in 2011 to 28,075 in 2021.

The neighbourhoods that grew the most over the past 10 years were Salford up 34.9 per cent; St Albans, 34.4 per cent and Islington, 29.7 per cent.

But the biggest falls were in Redbridge, down by 37.2 per cent; Harrow, 30.7 per cent; and Birmingham, 23.5 per cent.

The rate of decline in some areas slowed down over the past decade: whereas Welsh Jewry fell by 8.5 per cent between 2001 and 2011, the contraction was only one per cent the following decade, from 2,064 to 2,044; and in Yorkshire and Humberside, which contains Leeds, the fall was 5.8 per cent over the past decade, from 9,929 to 9,355, compared with a 14.5 per cent slide over the decade before.

The Charedi heartlands of Hackney and Haringey in North London grew strongly over the past 10 years, “though perhaps not as strongly as the previous decade”, JPR reported. However, after almost doubling between 2001 and 2011, the Gateshead population recorded a slight decline - “an unexpected finding that requires further investigation”.

Jews make up one in seven of the population of the North London of Barnet, rising by more than 21 per cent from 46,686 in 2001 to 56,616 in 2021. The Hertsmere Jewish community has increased by 71 per cent from 10,732 in 2001 to 18,346 over the same period; more than one in six of Hertsmere's overall population is now Jewish.

The Jewish population of Castle Point in the Thames Estuary which includes Canvey Island, home to a new Charedi settlement, has more than tripled in 10 years from 183 to 661.

JPR executive director Jonathan Boyd said the Census results would be “of immense value to community leaders and planners because they provide a remarkably detailed and accurate view of the country’s Jewish population.”

Not only did they reveal demographic changes that have occurred over the past twenty years, but they “allow us… to make projections of how the community is likely to change going forward.

“These first data from the 2021 Census merely scratch the surface of what the Census will reveal to us; future data releases will provide critical insights into Jewish population age, health, education, employment, housing, migration and identity, among many other topics.”

The Board of Deputies said the figures provide “invaluable information” and JPR’s analysis would guide “community decision-makers for years to come”.

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