Amish Migration Trends 2006-2010

Highlights of Interstate Household Migration

Migration Patterns. Although most Amish families remain rooted in the areas where they were born and raised, others move within their home state or to other states. Each year a steady stream of Amish families moves in and out of many of the 28 states (and the province of Ontario) with Amish settlements. This summary focuses on the migration of households (family units of one couple or one couple with their children) in or out of a state or province; it does not include intra-state migrations.

2006-2010 Migrations. Approximately 2,360 Amish households moved across state lines in the five-year period from 2006 through 2010. The moves likely involved some 11,800 people (assuming five persons per household).  See Migration 2006-2010 tables for details.

Gainers and Losers. Gainer states have a net increase of migrating families in the Amish shuffle each year. States with large, long-established Amish populations are more likely to be net losers because some Amish families flee as the suburbs encroach on older Amish communities. The impact the gain or loss of families has on a particular state’s Amish community depends on the size of the state’s Amish population.

Top Gainer States. Four states had a net gain of 70 or more immigrant Amish families over the five-year period: New York had the largest net gain with 231 households. Other states with a net gain of 70 or more included Kentucky (90), Illinois (73), and Kansas (70). New York towers above other states with a total of 344 immigrant households and a net gain of 231 new families. Kentucky follows with 259 immigrant families and a net gain of 90. Although Colorado, Nebraska, and Virginia have small Amish populations, they received 27, 36, and 44 new families respectively. See Migration Top Eight tables for details.

Top Loser States. The three states with the highest net loss of households were Pennsylvania (315), Wisconsin (84), and Delaware (81). They were followed by Ohio (69) and Michigan (53). Wisconsin had 217 new immigrant families in the five-year period, but it lost 301 families, yielding a net deficit of 84 households. Pennsylvania, home to the largest Amish population in 2011 (61,270), welcomed 132 arrivals from other states but lost 447, for a net loss of 315 families. For states such as Delaware, with a small Amish population of 1,350, the loss of 81 families over the past five years has a far greater impact than a similar size loss would have for Amish-heavy states such as Ohio, Indiana, or Pennsylvania.

Push Factors for Migration. Amish migration is influenced by both reasons for leaving (push) and reasons that entice families to a new state (pull). Push reasons may include (1) suburban congestion and sprawl, (2) high land prices, (3) tourism and other intrusive outside influences, (4) disputes with municipal authorities over issues such as zoning, (5) weak regional economies, (6) occupational changes (closing of markets, jobs, factories), and (7) church-related troubles or disputes.

Pull Factors in Migration.The following reasons, among others, may entice families to migrate to a new state: (1) fertile farmland at reasonable prices, (2) non-farm work in specialized occupations, (3) rural isolation that supports a traditional, family-based lifestyle, (4) hospitable social and physical environments (climate, governments, services, economy) conducive to the Amish way of life, and (5) proximity to family or other similar Amish church groups.

Notes:

1. The data includes all Amish groups (Old Order and New Order) that use horse-and-buggy transportation, but excludes car-driving groups such as the Beachy Amish and Amish Mennonites.

2. Stephen Scott, Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, gathered and compiled the data.

Sources: Amish migration reports in The Diary.

To cite this page: “Amish Migration Trends 2006-2010.” Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College. http://www2.etown.edu/amishstudies/Migration_Trends.asp.