London - Britain’s Jewish population is expanding for the first time since World War II, notably due to the growth of large families of ultra-orthodox members of the faith, according to research out today.

Britain has the fifth largest Jewish population in the world, but since 1950, the numbers have fallen by 40 percent, said Yaakov Wise, of Manchester University’s Centre for Jewish Studies.
The latest figure is up from 275,000 in 2005 and is the first such increase in decades.

“The high birth rate of ultra-orthodox Jews is now reversing this trend and that will have a major impact on the Jewish community in the years to come,” he said, adding there are more births than deaths for the first time since 1945.

He highlighted the large birth rate among ultra-orthodox Jews, who have an average of nearly seven children. Secular Jewish women have on average 1.65 children whereas the ultra-orthodox have on average 6.9, he said.
To my view that ultra-orthodox Jews are set to outnumber their more secular counterparts by the second half of this century, he said.