American Jewish Identity

Asked about their religious affiliation, 2% of Americans identified as Jewish. The survey also asked people who claimed no formal religious affiliation: “Do you consider yourself to be Jewish for any reason?” Anyone who responded “yes” or “half” was classified as culturally Jewish. An additional 0.8% of Americans identify as culturally but not religiously Jewish. These figures are consistent with other surveys that have found the Jewish population is approximately 2%.

Among Jews under 30, 47% identify as religiously Jewish and 53% identify as culturally Jewish. For Jews 65 or older 78% are religiously Jewish and 22% identify as culturally Jewish. A majority of Jews are men (54%-44%).

Reform is the largest denomination (28%) followed by Conservative (14%), Orthodox (10%) and Reconstructionist (2%). The largest group of Jews, however, claim to be “just Jewish” when asked about their denominational affiliation. Younger Jews are skewing more Orthodox. Only 20% of Jews under the age of 30 are Reform, compared to 15% who identify as Orthodox. Fewer than one in ten (8%) young Jewish Americans affiliate with the Conservative movement, and three percent identify as Reconstructionist. A much larger group – 44% – choose no denomination and say they are “just Jewish.” Older Jews, meanwhile, are far more likely to identify with the Reform movement (35%) than the Orthodox (3%), Conservative (20%) or Reconstructionist (2%) denominations and 34% do not have any affiliation.

Generational Shift in Jewish Denominational Identity

Hindus were the most highly educated religious group in the survey followed by Jews and followers of the New Age movement. Thirty-nine percent of Jews have a post-graduate degree; 65% have a four-year college degree, and only 20% have a high school degree or less. Orthodox Jews are far more likely than Reform Jews to have no more than a high school education (44% vs. 14%).

More than twice as many Jews identify with the Democratic party than the Republicans (66%-31%). Another 3% say they are independents. The differences among the denominations is dramatic, with 59% of Reform Jews and 47% of Conservatives identifying as Democrats, com-pared to only 23% of Orthodox Jews. Thirty-eight percent of Orthodox Jews identify as Republicans and 29% identify as independents. Among all Jews, 45% identify as liberal and 27% as conservative.

Fifty-six percent of Jews are married. Not surprisingly, the highest percentage of married couples – 74% – are Orthodox, compared to 64% of Conservative and 59% of Reform Jews. A large majority (77%) reported they have no children living in their household. Twenty-nine percent of Jewish parents said they have at least three children in their household, but the figures were dramatically different for Orthodox (62%) and Reform (17%) households.

Eleven percent of American Jews identify as LGBT.

Only 9% of Jews have household incomes of less than $30,000 per year; 54% earn more than $100,000 and 69% own their homes. Just under half (47%) of all Jews receive health insurance through an employer; 25% have government-sponsored health insurance.

Source: Robert P. Jones and Daniel Cox, “America’s Changing Religious Identity,” Public Religion Research Institute, (September 6, 2017).
“Jewish people,” Pew Research, (2025).