Trends
The Old Order Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world. They prohibit the use of contraception and have low infant mortality rates. The average Amish woman can expect to have at least seven live births. Other plain sects with the same or similar doctrines can be expected to have similarly explosive growth.
Despite this, the Pennsylvania Dutch, which includes Amish, Old Order Mennonite, and Conservative Mennonites are expected to become a smaller percentage of the population as the sects respond to high prices of farmland by spreading out all over the United States and internationally, and the English population spreads out from Philadelphia into suburban and rural areas. Donald Kraybill believes there are plain sect communities in 47 states.
Among people at least five years old living in Lancaster County in 2000,
- 89% spoke English at home;
- 7% spoke Pennsylvania Dutch;
- 4% spoke Spanish.
Most plain sects do not admit children to their church, and impose no sanctions on those who do not join, but shun those who fall away from the church once becoming a member. Among some groups of Old Order Amish, teenagers who are not yet baptized are not bound by the rules and go through a period of rumspringa, often with certain amount of misbehavior that would not otherwise be tolerated.
Read more about this topic: Plain People
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