What percentage of Israeli Jews identify as Ashkenazi, Mizrahi/Sephardi, Ethiopian, Russian, or mixed in the latest census or surveys?
Executive summary
There is no single “latest census” number in the provided sources that breaks Israeli Jews down exactly into Ashkenazi, Mizrahi/Sephardi, Ethiopian, Russian, and mixed categories; surveys and secondary summaries give varying snapshots—Pew’s prior survey shows Israeli Jews nearly evenly split between Ashkenazi (45%) and Sephardi/Mizrahi (48%) [1], while more recent commentary and reporting put Ashkenazim at about 32% in one 2025 piece [2]. Available sources do not provide a single unified, official census table with the requested five-category percentage breakdown.
1. Why the neat breakdown you asked for is hard to find
Israeli official statistics and academic treatments classify Jewish subgroups differently over time and by purpose: the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) historically uses continental origin and other proxies rather than fixed labels, researchers sometimes categorize by grandparents’ birthplaces, and journalists or analysts combine Sephardi with Mizrahi or treat Russian and Ethiopian Jews as immigration-origin groups—so comparable, authoritative five-way percentages are not present in the supplied materials [3] [4] [5]. Available sources do not mention a single CBS-issued table with exact percentage shares for Ashkenazi, Mizrahi/Sephardi, Ethiopian, Russian and “mixed.”
2. What peer surveys say about the two largest blocs
Pew’s survey findings reproduced in these materials report Israeli Jews are split roughly between Ashkenazim (45%) and Sephardi/Mizrahim (48%)—a near parity that many analysts cite when discussing ethnicity in Israel [1]. That same Pew-based reporting also documents cultural and religious differences across these groups—e.g., Ashkenazim in that survey were far more likely to identify as secular than Sephardi/Mizrahi respondents [1].
3. Contradictory recent estimates and why they differ
A 2025 commentary notes Ashkenazi Jews comprise about 32% of the population, a figure lower than Pew’s 45% and indicative of different classification choices or updated sampling and demographic shifts [2]. The discrepancy illustrates methodological divergence: some sources lump Sephardi and Mizrahi together, some count origin by grandparents, and some use self‑identification—each approach shifts percentages [4] [3] [5].
4. On Ethiopian, Russian and “mixed” identities: data gaps
The supplied sources mention Ethiopian and Russian-origin Jewish communities in qualitative and partial quantitative terms (for example, discussions of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and of Beta Israel), but none of the selected excerpts supply clear national-percentage shares for Ethiopian Jews, Russian-origin Jews, or a discrete “mixed” category in a recent census or survey [5] [4]. Available sources do not mention a definitive percentage for those groups in a unified, recent table.
5. How researchers operationalize ethnicity in Israel—and why it matters
Scholars note Israeli classifications are political and consequential: ethnicity categories like Ashkenazi and Mizrahi have been constructed and re‑constructed across censuses and administrative data, and choices about whether to use birthplace of grandparents, self‑identification, or religious rite produce different tallies [3] [4]. That matters because policy debates (on inequality, resource allocation, political mobilization) rely on these numbers, and the way data are collected can reflect or reinforce social hierarchies [6] [3].
6. Short guide to the best available numbers and what to quote
If you need a single citation for broad public discussion, the Pew-based figure that Israeli Jews are about 45% Ashkenazi and 48% Sephardi/Mizrahi is the clearest, survey‑based benchmark in the provided material [1]. Use the 32% Ashkenazi figure only with caveats that it comes from more recent commentary and likely reflects different classification choices [2]. For Ethiopian, Russian, and mixed categories, the provided sources note their presence and distinctiveness but do not supply up‑to‑date percentage shares [5] [4].
Limitations and next steps
These conclusions are limited to the documents supplied above; a definitive, current CBS breakdown by the five precise categories requested is not in the materials given [3] [4]. To produce a single, authoritative table you would need the latest Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics ethnicity/ancestry release or a contemporary national survey that explicitly reports percentages for Ashkenazi, Mizrahi/Sephardi, Ethiopian, Russian and mixed identities. Available sources do not mention that complete CBS table here.