Statistics

• Number of speakers worldwide: 1.600.000

• native language for: 600.000

• used on a daily basis by: 600.000

• stating that they know/understand the language: 1.000.000 (Kondrat 2010: 62)Kondrat 2010: 62 / komentarz/comment/r /
  Kondrat, Agata 2010. Nikt nie mówi dzisiaj w jidysz?, w: Cwiszn, Żydowski kwartalnik o literaturze i sztuce 1/2.
  
  

The past and the present situation of Yiddish

Before the II World War, Yiddish was the native language of a 10 million Ashkenazi Jew community living in Eastern Europe. Every third Jew who lived in pre-war Warsaw knew Yiddish and the case was similar in many other towns and cities in Poland. In Israel, however, it was Hebrew that became the new official language of the State. The newly-created State of Israel, in doing this, tried to burn its bridges and break the connection with Yiddish, a language, then, associated with poverty and provincialism. Some orthodox Jewish communities, known as the Haredim (Hasidic Jews comprising its largest group), still use Yiddish as their native language.
Some interested people learn Yiddish and treat it as a key to understanding the pre-war Jewish culture which thrived, also, on Polish soil (Fader 2009Fader 2009 / komentarz/comment/r /
Fader, Ayala 2009. Mitzvah Girls. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

).

• number of monolingual speakers

There are probably no monolingual (speaking only this single language) speakers of Yiddish. Nowadays the language is often used in a diglossic manner along with the given national language.

• The age of the speakers

It is difficult to estimate the age of Yiddish speakers. It should be assumed that in the communities of Haredi Judaism Yiddish speakers come in all age groups. Secular Yiddish speakers, however, are often people of advanced age.

• percentages:

• Number of Jews in Poland - 7.000 out of 38.482.919 (there is no mention on the number of Yiddish speakers in the 2012 National Census).
• Number of Yiddish speakers in Poland - 37 people (according to the 2002 National Census).

• multilingualism, multiglossia (what other languages do these language users speak on a daily basis?)

Multilingualism is one of the discerning features of Jewish communities from other societies. The knowledge of many languages became not only the behavioural norm but also a part of a Jewish identity. The Jews were a mobile society and, whether their reasons were of historic, economic or simply personal significance, they migrated between different countries, cultures and languages. Quite naturally they learnt the languages of their surroundings to a degree allowing them for unhindered communication, if not fluency. This multilingualism came in different shapes depending on the place, time and circumstance. The number of languages they knew varied but the tongue of their daily lives in Eastern Europe was Yiddish. The traditional education of Jewish men, taught ad Cheders and Yeshivas, offered them the Hebrew-Aramaic language. Also as a result of contact with local communities, Jewish people knew the local languages of their surroundings: Polish, Ukrainian or Belarusian. After the Partitions of Poland, Jews felt that they also needed to learn their new official languages - German and Russian. Obviously, it cannot be assumed that every single Jew living in Eastern Europe at that time spoke all of the above languages at a similar, high level. At the same time, however, there are cases where this Jewish multilingualism could even comprise over a dozen of languages.
To this day bilingualism is an important part of the daily lives of Jewish communities around the world. Hasidic Jews, who use Yiddish on a daily basis, are at least bilingual and possess the knowledge of local official languages, e.g. in the United States - English, in Israel - Hebrew.
These local national languages are used to communicate with the local non-Jewish populace. Yiddish, on the other hand, is spoken within the Jewish community itself. At the same time it is constantly influenced by these local languages, borrowing words or grammatical structures which, soon, become an integral part of Yiddish (Fader 2009Fader 2009 / komentarz/comment/r /
Fader, Ayala 2009. Mitzvah Girls. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

).

• National Censuses

It is difficult to estimate how many Jews did, in fact, use Yiddish before the II World War. It should be noted that at least ¾ of Ashkenazi Jews knew this language (Geller 1994Geller 1994 / komentarz/comment/r /
Geller, Ewa 1994. Jidysz – język Żydów polskich. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
). According to the last and only National Census of 1931 Poland stated that Yiddish was the native language of 79,9% (of 2.489.034) of Polish Jews (with Polish being the language of 11,9% (371.821) and Hebrew 7.9%).

The number of Jewish people on Polish territory from 1495 to 1765. (in thousands, based on YIVO).

year	1495	1550	1648	1660	1700	1795
number	0	55	185	163	285	750
areas within the borders of the Commonwealth of Both Countries
Poland	6	30	70	70	115	208
Galicia	2	15	54	60	95	168
Volhynia	0	3	16	8	17	67
Dnieper	0	1	5	-	2	29
Lithuania, Belarus	1	5	21	22	50	200
Courland, Livonia	-	-	0	0	0	2

Number of Jews in the interwar period (in thousands, based on YIVO).

year	1921	1931	1939
number	2845	3113	3250

Number of Jews in Poland in the 20th century (in thousands, National Censuses)

year	1945	1951	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000
year	100	70	31	9	5	3,8	3,5