World jewry

I found these statistics interesting, illuminating, and a little bit scary.

According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics there were 14,993,000 Jews worldwide in 2010.  That includes 4.5 million secular Jews -- that is, people of Jewish descent that do not consider themselves Jewish!

That's 0.2% of the world population. For every 1 Jew, there are 81 Catholics, 80 Christians, 140 Muslims, 64 Hindus, 36 Buddhists, 78 atheists, and 29 others.  In the US, Jews make up only 1.7% of the population.  In the UK, it is 0.5%.

In the US, 54% of Jews marry outside of the religion.  The overall growth rate for Jews is stagnant or at a slight decline, and the average age of Jews is advancing quickly.  (Which means not enough Jewish children are being born to replace those who are dying.)

On the one hand, I think it's amazing the Jewish influence on the world, considering their small numbers.  On the other hand, these numbers are not sustainable.  I'm not going to make any long-term predictions, as I imagine a religion that has survived 3,000 years and at least four attempts to wipe them out will find a way to carry on, but it does make me worry.