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When you say "I'm Jewish." Do you mean you are a member of the Jewish faith or a decedent of the ethnic group?

Those of you who aren't Jewish, when you hear someone say that they're Jewish do you think they're telling you their religion or their ethnicity?

This. Unless the statement comes within the context of discussing ethnic backgrounds, I assume they are referring to their religion.

Well, usually there is a context. I can't think of an occasion where somebody just said "Hi, I'm Jewish!" with no context or hint as to what they meant. I'll be honest, the person's appearance sometimes factors in too, even though I should know that's not an accurate way of judging. I mean, a lot of people have thought I'm Jewish based on appearance.

Though, the easiest thing to do is just ask "Oh, so do you practice Judaism?" That's what I usually do, because it's a polite way of getting them to say "No, I'm just ethnically Jewish" or "Yes, actually I'm a convert to Judaism, not an ethnic Jew" or whatever the case is.

Because I'm nosy like that.

Religion

I think that their religion is Jewish, because I knew that also they could categorize as "Jewish race"

I'm not sure that sentence made sense. confused