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Which US metropolitan areas have the highest per-capita Jewish populations and how are they ranked by raw numbers?
Executive summary
The largest U.S. Jewish metropolitan community is the New York–Newark–Jersey City area, reported at roughly 2.1–2.18 million Jews, followed by major concentrations in Los Angeles, Miami and other metro areas; the top ten metros reportedly contain about 5.5 million Jews or ~72% of U.S. Jews (figures compiled from Sheskin & Dashefsky summaries and aggregated sites) [1] [2]. Exact rankings by raw numbers vary by dataset and metro definition; available sources emphasize metropolitan concentration rather than a single definitive ordered list [3] [4].
1. The clear leader: New York’s metropolitan dominance
Every source that summarizes Sheskin & Dashefsky’s work identifies the New York metropolitan area as by far the largest U.S. Jewish community — approximately 2.1–2.18 million people — making it the largest Jewish community outside Israel and larger than the Jewish populations of some entire countries [1] [2] [5]. Reporting stresses that New York’s figure includes both the city and extensive suburbs in New Jersey, Long Island and Westchester, which is why metro definitions matter when ranking by raw counts [1] [2].
2. Other big metros: Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and beyond
Sources name Los Angeles and Miami as the next-largest U.S. Jewish metropolitan concentrations (examples include Los Angeles ~621,000 and Miami ~536,000 cited in aggregated listings), with sizeable communities also in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and the San Francisco Bay Area; however, stated numbers vary across summaries and visualizations that use different years and MSA/CSA boundaries [5] [2] [6]. The Jewish Virtual Library and Jewish Virtual Library’s metro table are cited repeatedly for metropolitan breakdowns but the exact ordered list differs by report [4] [7].
3. Top-10 concentration and what “ranked by raw numbers” really means
TheWorldData summarizes that the top ten metropolitan areas contain roughly 5.5 million Jews — about 72% of U.S. Jews — underscoring extreme urban concentration of the community and implying that a small number of metros dominate raw counts [1]. Still, rankings depend on which geography is used (MSA vs CSA vs “metropolitan area”) and on which year or estimate (mid, low, high ranges from Brandeis/AxisMaps), so simple numeric rank-tables in popular write-ups may not be strictly comparable [6] [3].
4. Data sources, methods and their limits
The principal academic source beneath many public summaries is the Sheskin & Dashefsky estimations published in the American Jewish Year Book; university and mapping projects (e.g., Brandeis/AxisMaps, University of Miami summary) use synthesized surveys and modeling to estimate community sizes across many geographies — methods that involve low/mid/high ranges and assumptions about identification and household composition [3] [6] [7]. Because these are estimates, popular sites that repost them (TheWorldData, WorldPopulationReview, Grokipedia/Wikipedia derivatives) may present slightly different point estimates or rounded figures [1] [8] [5].
5. Points of disagreement and ambiguity in existing reporting
Sources disagree on exact metro counts and occasionally on rank order beyond the top one or two metros; for instance, aggregated pages list Los Angeles and Miami with different absolute numbers and some sites update with new years or different metro definitions, creating inconsistencies across lists [2] [5] [9]. Available sources do not provide a single, canonical ranked table in this packet that lists every U.S. metro by descending raw Jewish population with uniform methodology — instead they point back to Sheskin & Dashefsky and derivative maps and tables [3] [4] [6].
6. Practical takeaway and how to get a definitive ranking
If you need a rigorously comparable ranked list by raw Jewish population, the recommended next step is to consult the Sheskin & Dashefsky dataset or the American Jewish Year Book metro tables directly (the academic mapping projects at Brandeis/AxisMaps and the Jewish Virtual Library compile these figures), then decide whether to use MSA or CSA definitions and which year estimate to use [7] [6] [4]. Public summaries already in circulation place New York at ~2.1–2.18 million and indicate Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and other large metros follow, with the top ten comprising the majority of U.S. Jews [1] [2].
Limitations: this analysis relies on the provided secondary summaries and mapping projects; available sources do not include a single unified, fully detailed ranked table in this packet that I can reproduce with identical methodology for every metro [3] [6] [4].