Mennonite Weekly Review

Amish groups have grown rapidly in the past 15 years and moved into new states, according to research by the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College.

Amish farmers in Lancaster County, Pa., bail hay. With recent population growth, an increasing number of Amish families are moving away from established communities such as Lancaster County to look for low-cost farmland in other states. — Photo by Daniel E. Rodriguez

The population growth is caused in large part by Amish families having five or more children on average, and then seeing 85 percent of those children join the church as adults, said Donald Kraybill, senior fellow at the Young Center and author of several books on the Amish.

The North American Amish population grew 84 percent, from 125,000 in 1992 to 231,000 in 2008. The population growth was 6 percent from 2007 to 2008; if the rate stays the same, the Amish population will double by 2020.

Growth in established communities has made it difficult for many Amish to stay farmers, Kraybill said.

“It is encouraging many people to move away from farming and into small business and construction because of difficulty getting farmland, and the high cost of it if you can get it,” he said.

Other factors spurring Amish migration include suburban sprawl, tourism, conflict with local government, weak regional economies and church disputes.

Amish are often attracted by lower-cost farmland and the ability to be more isolated.

The isolation can be a double-edged sword, though. In the new communities where Amish are moving, local officials may not be familiar with Amish practices and beliefs, Kraybill said.

“In general in the new settlements there is a greater likelihood of some conflict with local officials, and that’s just because neither the Amish nor the officials have a history of working together,” he said.

Amish have also moved into six new states — Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska and West Virginia — making a total of 27 U.S. states with Amish communities. There are also 4,455 Amish in the Canadian province of Ontario.