NJPS Home ---> NJPS Report ---> Intermarriage --->

Defining and Calculating Intermarriage

-Download NJPS Report PDF -Download PowerPoint Summary

Marital statistics are available for all respondents who represent adults in the Jewish population of 5.2 million people. For purposes of this report, intermarriage is defined as the marriage of someone who is Jewish to someone who is non-Jewish at the time of the survey. Jews married to other Jews are referred to as in-married. Importantly, the same definition of Jewish is applied to the respondent and spouse.

The intermarriage statistics presented here include respondents and spouses who were born and remain Jewish, as well as those who have converted or switched to Judaism. However, the intermarriage statistics exclude the marriages of current non-Jews to other non-Jews even when one of the spouses was Jewish at an earlier point in time. Furthermore, the intermarriage rate is calculated for current, intact marriages only; previous marriages that were dissolved for reasons of divorce or death are excluded. Finally, the rate of intermarriage applies to married individuals rather than to married couples. In other words, we ask: what percentage of currently married Jews are married to Jews (in-married), and what percentage are married to non-Jews (intermarried)?

Next page: Rates of Intemarriage