Study: Half of UK Jews to Be Haredi By 2031

ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS

More than half of British Jews will be haredi by 2032, according to a study of the UK’s Jewish community released Thursday. 

In a study entitled “Strictly Orthodox rising: What the demography of British Jews tells us about the future of the Jewish community,” the Institute for Jewish Policy Research revealed that some 50% of Jewish children and 30% of young Jewish adults in the UK will be haredi by 2031. 

IJPR used census data from 2011 and other, more recent, studies to examine the birthrate and overall growth of various Jewish communities in the UK, as well as the Muslim, Hindu, and Christian communities. 

Among the findings: haredi Judaism in the UK is growing by 4.8% per year – as the rest of the UK’s Jewry follows a steady 0.3% decline. 

Haredi Jews also have the highest fertility rate of any group in the UK, at six children per woman. By contrast, the Muslim fertility rate stands at 3.25 children per woman; 1.98 for the “mainstream” Jewish community; 1.8 children in the Hindu community; and 1.53 in the Christian community. Theoverall British fertility rate is a mere 1.96. 

IJPR concludes that “the British Jewish population is undergoing a powerful compositional change,” growing “more strictly religious” by demographic means alone.

However, it also qualifies that the trend is not set in stone; mass aliyah to Israel – or assimilation – could derail haredi dominance in UK Jewish society.