Which US metropolitan areas have the fastest-growing Jewish populations since 2000?

1. The Sun Belt surge: Las Vegas, Phoenix and Orlando lead headlines

Several recent profiles and community accounts single out Las Vegas, Phoenix and Orlando as among the fastest-growing Jewish communities since 2000, driven by in-migration, affordable housing and expanding Jewish institutions; Israel National News highlights those three metros explicitly as examples of rapid post-2000 growth ^[1]. That narrative is consistent with broader demographic shifts cataloged by regional mapping projects and by analytic work noting movement of American Jewry from the Northeast toward the West and South over recent decades ^{[3] [2]}.

2. Longstanding giants still growing in absolute terms: New York and South Florida

While growth rates may be higher in smaller Sun Belt metros, the largest absolute increases in Jewish population since 2000 have often occurred in incumbent centers: New York’s metropolitan area remains the largest single Jewish population hub in the U.S. and continues to register population growth and retention owing to deep institutional networks, making its net growth consequential even if percentage gains are smaller ^{[2] [4]}. South Florida — the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach area — also figures repeatedly in mapping accounts as a major and growing Jewish center tied to migration from the Northeast and retiree relocation ^[2].

3. Data disagreement and methodological caveats

Different authorities produce divergent pictures because they use different definitions (MSAs vs. federation service areas), baseline years, and survey approaches; Brandeis/AJPP and Jewish DataBank compilations have provided competing time series and differing magnitude estimates, and some meta-analyses have flagged implausibly high increases in certain compilations when held against census trends, underscoring the methodological sensitivity of “fastest-growing” rankings ^{[3] [5] [6]}. Many public summaries and media pieces rely on snapshots or maps rather than consistent longitudinal series, so headline claims should be read against the underlying study methods ^[3].

4. Where percentage growth differs from numeric growth — and why it matters

Smaller metro areas can post the highest percentage gains even when adding fewer people in absolute terms; profiles celebrating Las Vegas or Orlando’s rapid growth reflect notable percentage increases from smaller bases, while large metros such as New York, Los Angeles and Miami produce the largest raw numbers of Jewish residents — a distinction emphasized across population rankings and mapping projects ^{[7] [2]}. Any determination of “fastest-growing” therefore must specify whether it refers to percentage change, numeric increase, or institutional expansion (schools, synagogues, social services).

5. What the reporting doesn’t settle and where the evidence is strongest

Existing reporting and demographer compilations consistently show a geographic shift of Jewish population center-of-gravity toward the West and South since 2000, with Las Vegas, Phoenix and Orlando repeatedly named among the fastest-growing Jewish communities; the strongest support for that claim is found in recent mapping pieces and community studies that combine local counts and federation data ^{[1] [2] [3]}. That said, authoritative year-by-year MSA rankings are fragmented across sources (Jewish Virtual Library, Brandeis AJPP, Jewish DataBank) and the public extracts provided here do not include a harmonized longitudinal table, so precise rank-order lists for every year since 2000 cannot be fully reconstructed from the available excerpts ^{[8] [3] [6]}.