The largest survey of British Jews in two decades was launched this week by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

Members of the community will be invited at random to take part in the online questionnaire over the next two months, which will be conducted in association with pollsters Ipso-Mori.

The project, supported by a number of leading Jewish charities, is the largest communal survey of its kind since the JPR carried out a similar exercise in 1995. It will look at religious belief and practice, involvement in Jewish cultural and communal life, charity-giving and other areas such as the health, economic status and educational levels of UK Jewry.

JPR executive director Jonathan Boyd said: “The data we gather will have a significant bearing on how Jewish charities serve people’s needs going forward, and JPR’s research team will be ensuring that the findings are made available to as many charities as possible.”

The first results are due to be published before the end of the year, adding to information about the Jewish population that has come from the 2011 Census.

Asked whether the use of online polling would make it hard to get a representative sample from the strictly Orthodox community, JPR development director Judith Russell said: “We looked very carefully into internet penetration levels generally and are not overall concerned about this as Charedim have greater access to the internet than many people think.”