Amish

The Amish are a group of traditional Christian communities known for their simple way of life. They are part of the Anabaptist faith, with roots in Switzerland and Alsace. Because they keep apart from much of modern society, they are often described as having both religious and cultural identity. The Amish avoid many modern technologies, preferring to keep their lives focused on family, work, and their faith.

The Amish began in the late 1600s after a disagreement among Mennonite Christians in Switzerland, led by a man named Jakob Ammann. Over time, the group grew and split into different subgroups. Today, the Old Order Amish are the best known, as they still follow many traditional ways, such as traveling in horse-drawn buggies and wearing plain clothing.

Many Amish moved to America in the early 1700s, especially to places like Pennsylvania, looking for religious freedom. Today, there are over 400,000 Amish living mostly in the United States and Canada, and their numbers are growing quickly. Amish communities are led by their church rules, called the Ordnung, which guide everyday life. Young people join the church through adult baptism, usually in their late teens or early twenties. The Amish focus strongly on family, community, and peaceful living, and they do not take part in military service or many government programs.

History

Beginnings of Anabaptist Christianity

The Amish are part of a Christian group called Anabaptists, which began in Switzerland during a time of big changes in religion. Leaders like Huldrych Zwingli started new ideas, and followers practiced special baptisms for adults.

Emergence of the Amish

The name "Amish" started as a rude nickname for a leader named Jakob Amman in the 1700s. Early disagreements among these Christian groups led to different ways of following their beliefs.

Migration to North America

In the 1700s, many Amish families moved to places like Pennsylvania because they wanted safety and land. They later settled in areas like Lancaster County.

1850–1878: Division into Old Orders and Amish Mennonites

In the 1800s, some Amish groups changed and joined with other Christian groups, while others kept their traditional ways and became known as the Old Order Amish.

20th century

In the 1900s, more changes happened. Some Amish groups split over new ideas, like using cars or changing their traditions. Many Amish started their own schools for their children, and some began small businesses instead of farming.

Main article: Anabaptism Main article: Old Order Movement

Religious practices

The Amish have two important ideas: they stay away from pride and they value humility and calmness. They believe in being quiet and not showing off, and they follow what they think Jesus would want. This is different from many people around them who like to be special or show off.

Joining the Amish church starts with a special ceremony called baptism, usually when young people are between 16 and 23 years old. After this, they can only marry other Amish people. Services happen every other Sunday in someone’s home or barn. Leaders called bishops, ministers, and deacons guide the group.

The Amish have rules called the Ordnung that everyone follows. These rules talk about simple living, like not using certain modern tools, and how to dress. They also believe in being peaceful and not taking part in military activities. If someone doesn’t follow the rules, they might be asked to leave the community for a time. Many young Amish people choose to join the church when they are old enough.

Way of life

The Amish have a special way of living guided by their own rules, called the Ordnung. These rules can be different for each Amish group, and they are decided together by the community during special meetings twice a year. The rules cover many things, like how to dress, what technology is allowed, and how to interact with people outside the Amish community. Women also help decide these rules.

Families are very important to the Amish, and they believe having many children is a gift from God. Working hard is seen as a good thing, and they sometimes avoid modern technology because they think it makes people lazy or changes their traditional lifestyle too much.

Transportation

Amish communities are known for traveling by horse and buggy because they prefer a slower pace of life. Some Amish groups also allow using buses, cars, or trains. Recently, many Amish people have started using electric bicycles because they are faster than walking or using a horse and buggy.

Clothing

Main article: Plain dress

The Amish are famous for their simple clothing. Men wear plain shirts, hats, and suits, and grow beards to show they are married men. They do not grow mustaches because those are linked to the military, which the Amish avoid due to their peaceful beliefs. Women wear long dresses in soft colors, along with bonnets and aprons. The color of a woman’s bonnet shows whether she is single (black) or married (white). Women also wear prayer kapps, which are small caps that show their religious beliefs. All their clothes are made by hand. Older Amish groups use hooks and eyes to fasten their clothes, while newer groups may use buttons.

Cuisine

Amish food is simple and traditional, and it is an important part of their social life. They share meals at gatherings like potlucks, weddings, and fundraisers. Amish foods, such as pies, preserves, and bread, are often sold at markets, and some Amish communities have restaurants for visitors. Their meals are similar to what many Americans eat, but they often prepare and preserve their food in special ways. While their cooking is sometimes confused with the food of the Pennsylvania Dutch, it has its own unique traditions that have changed over time and place.

Economic activities

Historically, Amish communities were mainly focused on farming, with most families working the land. But over time, as their population grew and life became more complicated, many Amish people started working in other jobs besides farming.

In a big Amish area in Ohio, in 1965 about 75% of married men were full-time farmers. By 1996, that number dropped to about 40%. By 2015, only 16% of Amish men listed farming as their job, showing how much they have moved to other work.

Today, common jobs for Amish people include roofing, building, woodworking, working with metal, and making small products by hand.

Even though fewer Amish people farm now, they still see farming as important. Small farms help bring families and communities together, teaching children important skills and building strong bonds.

Dog breeding

Amish and Mennonite communities in many states have started dog breeding as a way to earn money. In Ohio, most licensed dog breeders are Amish, and the same is true in Indiana and Pennsylvania. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, there are many licensed and unlicensed dog breeding facilities.

Subgroups

Main article: Subgroups of Amish

The Amish have three main groups: the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Amish Mennonites. All of these groups wear simple clothing and follow the Bible as shown in their church's rules, called the Ordnung. The Old Order Amish, New Order Amish, and Old Beachy Amish hold their services in German and speak Pennsylvania German or other German dialects. They travel in buggies instead of using cars, except for the Old Beachy and Kauffman Amish Mennonites. The Beachy Amish use modern technology, including cars, and hold services in the local language.

Over time, the Amish have split into different groups, mostly about their rules and beliefs. The largest group is the Old Order Amish, who separated from other Amish in the 1860s and follow traditional ways closely. The New Order Amish are sometimes seen as a part of the Old Order Amish, even though their names are different.

Amish groups

• Old Order Amish
  • Nebraska Amish
  • Swartzentruber Amish
  • Buchanan Amish
  • Swiss Amish
  • Andy Weaver Amish
  • Troyer Amish
  • Byler Amish
  • Renno Amish
  • Holmes Old Order Amish
  • Elkhart-LaGrange Amish
  • Lancaster Amish
  • Tobe Amish
  • Michigan Amish
• New Order Amish

• Amish Mennonites
  • Old Beachy Amish
  • Kauffman Amish Mennonites
  • Beachy Amish (lost many Amish features)
  • Egli Amish (historic)
  • Stuckey Amish (historic)
• Para-Amish groups
  • Lobelville Believers in Christ
  • Le Roy Plain Community (historic)
  • Manton Plain Community (joined the Michigan Amish)
  • Ghent Plain Community (historic)
  • Christian Communities (historic)
  • Vernon Community
  • Caneyville Christian Community (historic)

Affiliations

As of 2011, about 40 different Old Order Amish groups were known. The eight largest groups of Old Order Amish are listed below, with Lancaster having the most members.

Use of technology by different affiliations

The table below shows which technologies different Amish groups use. No Old or New Order Amish use cars, radios, televisions, or the Internet in most cases. Three groups—"Lancaster", "Holmes Old Order" and "Elkhart-LaGrange"—are the largest and most common among the Old Order Amish.

Language

Main article: Pennsylvania Dutch language

Most Old Order Amish, all New Order Amish, all Old Beachy Amish, and most Kauffman Amish Mennonites speak Pennsylvania Dutch. They call people who are not Amish "English," no matter where they come from. Two Old Order Amish groups—called Swiss Amish—speak a form of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect.

The word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" does not mean the language of the Netherlands. It comes from the Pennsylvania German word Deitsch, meaning "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German." The Amish use three languages: Pennsylvania Dutch at home and in church services, English for reading, writing, school, and business, and Standard German for prayers and singing in church. This use of three languages helps show who they are.

Ethnicity

The Amish mostly come from German or Swiss-German families. They usually call themselves "Amish" only for members of their church, not as a description of their ancestry. Some Amish descendants know they have unique cultural and genetic traits. Young children raised in Amish homes and those who choose to join the church are considered Amish. Some Mennonite churches have many people who used to be Amish. Most today's Amish come from immigrants who arrived in the 1700s, who focused strongly on tradition and kept a separate Amish identity.

Para-Amish groups

Some groups, called "para-Amish", share many Amish ways, like traveling in horse-and-buggy carriages and wearing simple clothes. These groups are mostly made of former Amish but are not part of the main Amish groups because they have different beliefs or practices. The Bergholz Community is different; it is no longer seen as Amish because it has moved away from many important Amish principles.

Population and distribution

Because the Amish are usually baptized no earlier than 18 and children are not counted in local congregation numbers, estimating their numbers is difficult. Rough estimates from various studies placed their numbers at 125,000 in 1992, 166,000 in 2000, and 221,000 in 2008. Thus, from 1992 to 2008, population growth among the Amish in North America was 84 percent (3.6 percent per year). During that time, they established 184 new settlements and moved into six new states. In 2000, about 165,620 Old Order Amish resided in the United States, of whom 73,609 were church members. The Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world, with an average of seven children per family in the 1970s and a total fertility rate of 5.3 in the 2010s. Due to this, their population doubles in size roughly every 20 years.

In 2010, a few religious bodies, including the Amish, changed the way their adherents were reported to better match the standards of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. When looking at all Amish adherents and not solely Old Order Amish, about 241,000 Amish adherents were in 28 U.S. states in 2010.

The Amish added 100,000 more adherents in just 9 years, reaching 411,000 in 2025 in comparison with the 308,000 figure from 2016, at the same time the total number of settlements grew from 509 to 684 (+34%), and the number of districts went from 2,259 to 3,114 (+38%).

Distribution by country

United States

See also: List of U.S. states by Amish population, Amish in Indiana, Amish in Maryland, Amish in Ohio, and Amish in Wisconsin

The United States is the home to the overwhelming majority (over 98 percent) of Amish people. In 2025, Old Order communities were present in 32 U.S. states. The total Amish population in the United States as of June 2025 has stood at 404,575 up 9,855 or 2.5 percent, compared to the previous year. Pennsylvania has the largest population (95.4 thousand), followed by Ohio (86.3 thousand) and Indiana (67.3 thousand), as of June 2025. The largest Amish settlements are in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania (44.7 thousand), Holmes County and adjacent counties in northeastern Ohio (39.0 thousand), and Elkhart and LaGrange counties in northeastern Indiana (29.9 thousand), as of June 2025. The highest concentration of Amish in the world is in the Holmes County community; nearly 50 percent of the entire population of Holmes County is Amish as of 2010.

The largest concentration of Amish west of the Mississippi River is in Missouri, with other settlements in eastern Iowa and southeast Minnesota. The largest Amish settlements in Iowa are located near Kalona and Bloomfield. The largest settlement in Wisconsin is near Cashton with 13 congregations, i.e. about 2,000 people in 2009.

Because of the rapid population growth of the Amish communities, new settlements in the United States are being established each year, thus: 18 new settlements were established in 2016, 22 in 2017, 17 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 26 in 2020, 18 in 2021, 19 in 2022, 39 in 2023 and 19 in 2024. The main reason for the continuous expansion is to obtain enough affordable farmland, other reasons for new settlements include locating in isolated areas that support their lifestyle, moving to areas with cultures conducive to their way of life, maintaining proximity to family or other Amish groups, and sometimes to resolve church or leadership conflicts.

The adjacent table shows the eight states with the largest Amish population in the years 1992, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2025.

Canada

The Amish of Canada settled in southwestern Ontario, having come from the United States in 1815 and directly from Europe in 1822. They numbered about 1,000 people in 1991. Today, the Canadian Amish population exceeds 6,000 people, living in 20 different communities.

Rising land prices are causing some Amish families to leave Ontario. Since 2015, some Amish families have settled in provinces other than Ontario, including Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, primarily due to farmland prices, the geography of existing Amish settlements in both Canada and the United States, and the political hospitality of certain provinces. Since 2017, some Amish families originally from Ontario have settled in Manitoba's Rural Municipality of Stuartburn.

The Old Order Amish in Canada trace their origins to two distinct waves of Amish Mennonite migration. The first wave occurred in the 1880s, when a group of Amish Mennonites from Europe settled in Ontario. The second wave of Old Order Amish migration occurred in the 1950s, when Amish communities from states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Iowa established settlements in Ontario.

The majority of Old Order settlements are located in the province of Ontario, namely Oxford (Norwich Township) and Norfolk Counties. A small community is also established in Bruce County (Huron-Kinloss Township) near Lucknow.

In 2016, several dozen Old Order Amish families founded two new settlements in Kings County in the province of Prince Edward Island. Increasing land prices in Ontario had reportedly limited the ability of members in those communities to purchase new farms. At about the same time a new settlement was founded near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, only about 12 km (7.5 mi) from Amish settlements in Maine. In 2017, an Amish settlement was founded in Manitoba near Stuartburn. In 2024 this colony ceased to exist, as the Amish have sold their properties and moved to Minnesota.

Latin America

There is only one colony left in Latin America, in Bolivia. The Argentina colony ceased to exist as of 2024. The first attempt by Old Order Amish to settle in Latin America was in Paradise Valley, near Galeana, Nuevo León, Mexico, but the settlement lasted from only 1923 to 1929. An Amish settlement was tried in Honduras from about 1968 to 1978, but this settlement failed too. In 2015, new settlements of New Order Amish were founded east of Catamarca, Argentina, and Colonia Naranjita, Bolivia, about 75 miles (121 km) southwest of Santa Cruz. Most of the members of these new communities come from Old Colony Mennonite background and have been living in the area for several decades.

Europe

In Europe, no split occurred between Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; like the Amish Mennonites in North America, the European Amish assimilated into the Mennonite mainstream during the second half of the 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century. Eventually, they dropped the word "Amish" from the names of their congregations and lost their Amish identity and culture. The last European Amish congregation joined the Mennonites in 1937 in Ixheim, today part of Zweibrücken in the Palatinate region.

Seekers and joiners

Main article: Seeker (Anabaptism)

Only a small number of people from outside the Amish community have decided to join them. Since 1950, about 75 people who were not originally part of the Amish faith have become lifelong members. Since 1990, around twenty people from Russian Mennonite background have joined the Amish in Aylmer, Ontario.

Two whole Christian groups have become part of the Amish. One is from Smyrna, Maine, and the other is from Manton, Michigan. These groups are known to be more welcoming to new members than other Amish churches. Most of their members originally came from similar communities, such as the Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonite, or Old German Baptist Brethren.

Many more people have spent time living as Amish to see how life is, but decided not to join permanently. Others stay close to the Amish but never plan to join.

The Beachy Amish often invite visitors to their services and sometimes allow them to become members. They use English in their services and permit some modern tools.

Different types of people are drawn to the Amish way of life for various reasons. Some are interested mainly in certain traditions, others are drawn to the lifestyle, some seek a strong Christian faith, and others come with personal challenges from difficult family situations.

Health

Main article: Health among the Amish

The Amish have some health conditions that happen more often in their communities, like dwarfism, Angelman syndrome, and certain metabolic disorders. This is because most Amish come from a small group of families who lived a long time ago. Even though these conditions can be serious, the Amish believe they are part of life and accept children with these conditions. They do not use genetic testing before marriage or during pregnancy to find these conditions, but they are happy to help doctors study these diseases.

The Amish often live healthy lives because they avoid smoking and follow clean habits. They have lower rates of some cancers compared to others, partly because they wear clothes that protect their skin from the sun. Special clinics, like the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, help treat children with rare diseases, so families do not have to leave their communities for care. The Amish do not usually have private health insurance, but they support each other by collecting money to help pay for medical bills. They use modern medicine, including hospital births, and sometimes travel to other countries for cheaper care.

The Amish believe in having large families, which helps with farm work, though some families choose to plan how many children they have if it could affect a mother’s health. They do not support abortion or certain medical treatments like artificial insemination, eugenics, and stem cell research because these do not match their beliefs.

Life in the modern world

Over time, the Amish have faced challenges from the modern world. They sometimes struggle with issues like taxes, education laws, and unfair treatment by others.

Because their way of life is different, some people have been unkind to the Amish. This can include harmful actions like throwing things at their horse-drawn carriages.

The Amish usually do not send their children to school past the eighth grade. They believe this gives their children all they need to know for their way of life. Many Amish communities have their own small schools, often taught by young women from their community. In 1972, a court case called Wisconsin v. Yoder let the Amish decide how long their children go to school without breaking the law.

The Amish pay some taxes but do not usually pay for things like car registration or fuel because they rarely use cars. They also have special rules about government support programs, which they choose not to use based on their beliefs. This was settled in laws and court cases over many years.

Publishing

In 1964, two Amish farmers started Pathway Publishers to share more about the Amish and Anabaptist communities. This company is based in LaGrange, Indiana and Aylmer, Ontario. Pathway is now the main place where Amish schools get their textbooks, and where people can find books and magazines about Amish life. Besides Pathway, some private businesses also publish books and old literature that Amish families value. Some Amish people read a newspaper called Hiwwe wie Driwwe, written in their own dialect, and some even write for it.

Similar groups

Anabaptist groups that came from the same movement as the Amish share their Pennsylvania German heritage and often have similar styles of dress. These groups include different types of Old Order Mennonites, traditional Schwarzenau Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. The Noah Hoover Old Order Mennonites look so much like the Amish, with their dress, beards, horse and buggy, and strict rules about modern technology, that people often think they are Amish.

Conservative "Russian" Mennonites and Hutterites also dress simply and speak German dialects, but they came from different parts of Europe and have their own cultures and religious traditions. The Hutterites live together in communities and usually accept modern technology.

In western Ukraine, the Kashketnyky have been compared to the Amish because of their simple way of living and peaceful beliefs.

The few remaining Plain Quakers live in a similar way to the Amish, including their views on war, but they are not related to the Amish. Early Quakers were influenced by the Anabaptists and later influenced the Amish in colonial Pennsylvania. Today, most Quakers no longer wear traditional dress.

Relations with Native Americans

The first Amish community in the New World was the Northkill Amish Settlement, established in 1740 in Berks County, Pennsylvania. During the French and Indian War, a local tribe attacked the Hochstetler family home. The family followed their beliefs of not fighting back, which led to sad events for some members. Later, the Amish and Native American farmers worked together peacefully in Pennsylvania.

Over time, the Amish and Native American communities made efforts to understand each other better. In 2012, a group worked together to build a replica Iroquois Longhouse, and they continued having meetings to build friendship and peace.