The global Jewish population is nearing 16 million. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The current global Jewish population is about 14.2 million, according to new data from the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI). When combining that figure with the number of people around the world with one Jewish parent, or those who identify as part-Jewish, the total rises to 16.5 million and equals the world’s Jewish population before the Holocaust.

A report issued by JPPI indicates that the global rise in Jewish population has occurred naturally and took place mainly in Israel, where there are currently about 6.1 million Jews. Israel has one of the highest fertility rates in the Western world. This population growth is also connected the  “changing patterns of Jewish identification,” according to JPPI. For instance, 59 percent of Americans with only one Jewish parent now identify as Jewish.

In the U.S., it might now be considered more “respectable” than it was in the past to identify as Jewish, said JPPI President Avinoam Bar-Yosef.