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One of the most striking things in this article for me was the remark about Amish women having five to ten children. If this is the case and if all women have

One of the most striking things in this article for me was the remark about Amish women having five to ten children. If this is the case and if all women have children then the Amish population should be increasing rapidly. Is it? This page: https://amishamerica.com/how-fast-are-the-amish-growing/ https://amishamerica.com/how-fast-are-the-amish-growing/ says that the doubling time is about 19 years. How do they find enough suitable land to practice their way of life?

barry-cotter 7y ago
Agricultural land is cheap and plentiful if you don’t want to live within commuting distance of a major city. The US is really big and comparatively empty. Wyoming is bigger than the United Kingdom and has less than 600,000 people and there are plenty of other states with an abundance of farm land.
- kwhitefoot 7y ago
  But that doesn't seem to be motivating the Amish to move to such areas. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Amish_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Amish_p... the Amish population of Wyoming was 130 last year. Mind you that appears to be 130 more than before. It seems that, at least until very recently, they prefer to be where there are already substantial numbers of Amish people already (quite sensible of course). The biggest increase in absolute numbers 2010-2019 was Pennsylvania which is also the state with the highest Amish population.
Noos 7y ago
I think the problem is that a lot of those amish children become non-amish very quickly. Leave the community.
- zucker42 7y ago
  Apparently, Amish communities have an 85% retention rate.
zucker42 7y ago
> How do they find enough suitable land to practice their way of life? It's a stupid answer, but I would guess they buy it, just like anyone else. I've heard about groups of Amish moving to new areas to start communities.

barry-cotter 7y ago

Agricultural land is cheap and plentiful if you don’t want to live within commuting distance of a major city. The US is really big and comparatively empty. Wyoming is bigger than the United Kingdom and has less than 600,000 people and there are plenty of other states with an abundance of farm land.

kwhitefoot 7y ago
But that doesn't seem to be motivating the Amish to move to such areas. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Amish_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Amish_p... the Amish population of Wyoming was 130 last year. Mind you that appears to be 130 more than before. It seems that, at least until very recently, they prefer to be where there are already substantial numbers of Amish people already (quite sensible of course). The biggest increase in absolute numbers 2010-2019 was Pennsylvania which is also the state with the highest Amish population.

Noos 7y ago

I think the problem is that a lot of those amish children become non-amish very quickly. Leave the community.

zucker42 7y ago
Apparently, Amish communities have an 85% retention rate.

zucker42 7y ago

> How do they find enough suitable land to practice their way of life? It's a stupid answer, but I would guess they buy it, just like anyone else. I've heard about groups of Amish moving to new areas to start communities.