There are several ways of counting how many Jews live in Australia, depending on the definition used. The most commonly cited figures are just under 100,000 by religion and around 115,000–120,000 when broader definitions are used.
Census and survey figures
Australian Census data from 2021 records about 99,956 people who identified Judaism as their religion, which is often treated as the “official” minimum count of Jews in Australia. This represents roughly 0.4% of the national population at that time.
Jewish community demographic studies, which adjust for undercounting and include people missed by the religion question, estimate a “total Jewish population” of about 116,967 in 2021, or around 0.46% of Australians. These studies suggest the number of Jews peaked slightly higher (about 117,900) around 2016 and has been relatively stable since then.
Broader demographic definitions
Some international Jewish demography institutes use broader categories such as “core Jewish population” and “enlarged Jewish population.” For Australia, one such analysis estimates a core Jewish population of about 117,000 and an enlarged population (including non‑Jewish household members in Jewish families and some with partial Jewish background) of about 143,000.
Because of these different definitions, many overviews now describe Australia as having roughly 115,000–120,000 Jews on a core or total-population basis, while noting that the strictly self-identified-by-religion figure is closer to 100,000.
