America’s Amish population has grown from 125,000 in 1992 to 231,000 in 2008. Sociology professor Donald Kraybill says this is because the Amish have strict rules about marrying within the faith, reports Reuters. The populations of other religious groups often suffer as a result of intermarriage, but an Amish marrying outside the faith faces excommunication, a powerful deterrent.
In response to its growing population, the Amish community is spreading beyond Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, the three states that previously held a majority of the community. The number of Amish communities throughout the United States has increased by 82 percent and are scattered across 28 different states. Amish people have branched out to states previously uninhabited by their ancestors, such as Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Washington and West Virginia, reports the Associated Press.
While a small part of the growth is due to conversions, other explanation include a high fertility rate and healthier children overall. Amish couples have an average of 5 children, and 80 percent of them grow up to practice the faith. But now many families are seeking cheaper farmland in states other than those in which they were raised. They look for places where they can keep to themselves, farm inexpensively and find work in construction or furniture making.
Many communities are happy to have them, but Amish have faced some friction in their new locations. “They are moving into new states and settling or establishing new settlements in communities where local officials aren’t acquainted with them. That creates some misunderstanding on zoning issues or other unique factors in Amish practice,” Kraybill told the Associated Press.
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