50 Fun Facts About Amish

The Amish are named for which Anabaptist leader, whose followers split from the Swiss Mennonites in 1693?

Jakob Ammann, a Swiss Anabaptist elder born around 1644, led the 1693 split over stricter discipline; 'Amish' was first used by his opponents in 1710 as a term of derision.

The Anabaptist movement from which the Amish emerged began in 1525 in which Swiss city?

Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock performed the first adult rebaptisms in Zürich in January 1525, breaking with the city council's official Reformation.

Which hymnbook, first printed in 1564, do the Amish sing from in worship?

The Ausbund, first printed in 1564 and built around hymns written by Anabaptist prisoners in Passau, is the oldest Christian hymnal in continuous use.

What do the Amish call the set of church rules that governs dress, technology and daily life?

The Ordnung is each church district's mostly unwritten code covering dress, buggies and permitted technology; what it allows differs noticeably from district to district.

Amish migrants of 1717-1750 settled first in the area that became which Pennsylvania county?

The Northkill settlement in what became Berks County, founded around 1740, was the first sizeable Amish community in America; a 1757 raid during the French and Indian War scattered it.

Mid-19th-century Amish immigrants settled mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and which Canadian province?

Ontario's Waterloo County drew Amish settlers from the 1820s; most of the 19th-century arrivals across North America later joined less conservative Amish Mennonite groups.

As of 2024, roughly how many Old Order Amish live in the United States?

The Young Center's 2024 census put the Amish population of the United States at about 405,000, spread over more than 600 settlements in over 30 states.

Because of large families and high retention, the Amish population doubles roughly how often?

With families averaging six or seven children and most young people joining the church, the Amish population doubles about every 20 years; it grew 84 percent between 1992 and 2008.

What do the Amish generally call non-Amish people?

The Amish call all outsiders 'English', whatever their ethnicity, because the world beyond the church speaks English rather than the dialect used at home.

Which language, a form of German, do most Old Order Amish speak at home?

Pennsylvania Dutch (Deitsch) is a Palatine German dialect; the 'Dutch' comes from Deitsch, meaning German, and has nothing to do with the Netherlands.

Amish church membership begins with adult baptism, usually between which ages?

Amish baptism is an adult choice usually made between 16 and 23; only after it is a person a full church member bound by the district's rules.

What do the Amish call the period from around age 16 when youth experience the outside world before baptism?

Rumspringa is Pennsylvania German for 'running around'; elders see it mainly as a time for courtship before the young person decides on baptism.

How often do Old Order Amish hold worship services?

Amish districts meet every other Sunday, rotating among members' homes, barns and shops; the off-Sunday is spent visiting family or attending another district's service.

An Amish church district typically contains how many families?

A district of 20 to 40 families, typically 100 to 150 people, is kept small enough to meet in members' homes; when it outgrows that, it divides in two.

How are Amish bishops, ministers and deacons chosen?

Ordination is by a mix of election and drawing lots: members nominate, then each nominee picks a hymnal, one holding a slip of paper, following the apostles' choice of Matthias.

Old Order Amish children typically finish formal schooling after which grade?

Amish children finish school after the eighth grade, usually in their own one-room schools; further learning is practical, at home, on the farm or in the shop.

Which 1972 Supreme Court case put Amish religious freedom above compulsory high-school education?

In Wisconsin v. Yoder, Jonas Yoder and two other fathers had been fined $5 each for keeping their 14- and 15-year-olds out of school; the Court ruled for them in 1972.

Married Amish men grow beards but are forbidden from growing what?

Moustaches are associated with the military, which the pacifist Amish reject; the beard signals manhood and marital status.

Instead of buttons, which are considered too flashy, Old Order Amish clothing is fastened with what?

Hooks and eyes fasten men's coats and vests, while women typically close their dresses with straight pins; buttons are viewed as showy, though many groups allow plain ones on shirts.

What is the Amish practice of social avoidance imposed on members who are excommunicated?

Shunning, or Meidung, cuts an excommunicated member off from normal business and social dealings with the church until they confess and are restored.

The Amish value Gelassenheit, a German word meaning what?

Gelassenheit, roughly 'yieldedness' or submission to God's will, underlies Amish humility, plain dress and the reluctance to draw attention to oneself.

Which US county has the world's densest Amish population, about 48% in 2020?

Its settlement is the second-largest overall; the largest is in Pennsylvania.

The world's largest single Amish settlement is in which Pennsylvania county?

Lancaster County's settlement, begun in the 1760s, numbers well over 40,000 Amish and is also the community's best-known tourist destination.

The Amish are formally exempt from which US government programme, having a religious objection to it?

Self-employed Amish have been exempt from Social Security since 1965, and Amish employees of Amish employers since 1988; they neither pay in nor draw benefits, relying on mutual aid instead.

Which Amish subgroup, unlike the Old Order, drives cars and worships in the local language?

Both the Beachy and New Order Amish also emphasise the New Birth, run Sunday schools and seek converts.

In which decade did the New Order Amish split from the Old Order?

The New Order Amish formed in 1966, in the 1960s, over demands for cleaner courtship practices, a ban on tobacco and a more evangelical emphasis on assurance of salvation.

Which ultra-conservative Amish affiliation emerged in Holmes County, Ohio?

The Swartzentruber Amish, who split off around 1917 under Bishop Sam Yoder, are among the strictest groups, refusing even the reflective slow-moving-vehicle triangles most Amish put on their buggies.

Which term describes reduced genetic variety in a population established by very few individuals?

The founder effect: nearly all Amish descend from a few hundred 18th-century immigrants, so rare recessive alleles those settlers carried are far commoner among them than in the wider population.

In Witness, the Amish boy Samuel sees a murder in which city's railway station?

Young Samuel Lapp witnesses the killing of an undercover officer in a restroom at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, which draws detective John Book into hiding on the Lapp farm.

Who directed the 1985 film Witness?

Peter Weir, the Australian director of Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli, earned a Best Director Oscar nomination for Witness and later made Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show.

After the 2006 West Nickel Mines School shooting, the Amish community's response drew attention for what?

Its forgiveness of the gunman drew worldwide attention: Amish neighbours visited the killer's widow and parents, attended his funeral and helped fund his family; the school was rebuilt as the New Hope School.

Shoofly pie, a favourite of Amish country, is made primarily with which sweet ingredient?

Molasses, under a crumb topping of flour, brown sugar and shortening, gives shoofly pie its sticky filling; the name is popularly said to come from shooing flies away from it.

The whoopie pie, sold by Amish vendors across the US, is known by what name in the Pittsburgh region?

Gob is the western Pennsylvania name for the cream-filled chocolate cake sandwich; Maine also claims the treat, but Pennsylvania Amish baking is one of its main roots.

The Amish first came to Pennsylvania for religious freedom offered by which colonial founder?

William Penn's 'holy experiment' promised religious liberty in his Quaker colony, drawing Amish families from the 1730s; rich limestone soil and a mild climate were the other attractions.

In the 1693 split, how did Ammann's side insist that excommunicated members be treated?

Ammann demanded avoiding them even at common meals, the strict social avoidance set out in the Dordrecht Confession; Hans Reist's side would only bar the fallen from communion.

The Egli Amish, who left the Amish church in the 19th century, later renamed themselves what?

Henry Egly's followers, stressing a conversion experience, took the name Defenseless Mennonite in 1908 and later became the Evangelical Mennonite Church, now the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches.

Between 1862 and 1878, Amish bishops held yearly ministerial conferences known by what German name?

The Dienerversammlungen ('ministers' meetings') of 1862-1878 tried to settle disputes over dress and discipline; the traditionalists who stopped attending kept the old ways, while the majority became Amish Mennonites.

Which reformer's circle in Switzerland gave rise to the Anabaptist movement?

Huldrych Zwingli's younger associates, led by Conrad Grebel, broke with him over infant baptism in 1525 and became the Swiss Brethren, ancestors of both the Amish and the Mennonites.

Where do retired Amish grandparents typically live?

Retired parents hand the farm to a son and move into a small second house on the family farm, the Grossdaadi Haus, built beside or attached to the main farmhouse.

Amish traditionally travel by horse and buggy and reject which utility for their homes?

Power-line electricity is refused because a grid connection ties the home to the outside world; many Amish instead run tools and lamps on batteries, propane, compressed air or diesel generators.

Which Coolio hit did 'Weird Al' Yankovic rework in 1996 into a song about plain Amish living?

'Amish Paradise' reworks Gangsta's Paradise, Coolio's 1995 Billboard number one from Dangerous Minds; Coolio objected at the time but later called his refusal a mistake.

TLC's 2012 reality series Breaking Amish followed five young Anabaptists moving to which city?

The first season followed four Amish and one Mennonite moving to New York City in 2012; the show later spawned the spin-off Return to Amish.

Pinecraft, a popular winter getaway for Amish and Mennonites, is in which Florida county?

It began as the Sarasota National Tourist Camp in the 1920s and had 486 residents at the 2020 census; visitors come mostly from the Midwest and Pennsylvania.

Amish friendship bread is made from what, passed between friends like a chain letter?

A sourdough starter, fed with flour, sugar and milk over ten days, is divided so that one portion is baked and the others given to friends with the recipe; the result resembles coffee cake.

Shipshewana, home of the Menno-Hof Amish museum, is named after a member of which tribe?

Shipshewana takes its name from a Potawatomi chief whose band was forced west to Kansas in 1838; he returned to die beside the lake that also bears his name.

The widely debunked 2012 reality series Amish Mafia aired on which network?

Discovery aired Amish Mafia from 2012 to 2015, following 'Lebanon Levi' Stoltzfus; scholars, local papers and police all said the protection racket it depicted was a fiction staged for entertainment.

In WWII, Amish men assigned to Civilian Public Service mostly worked in what?

Civilian Public Service put conscientious objectors into forestry and hospitals; hospital postings exposed young Amish men to progressive Mennonites and the wider world, and some never returned to the church.

How often do all members of an Amish church district review their Ordnung?

Twice a year, before the spring and autumn communion services, every member affirms the district's rules at a council meeting; communion goes ahead only when the district is at peace.

As of June 2025, which state had the third-largest Amish population after Pennsylvania and Ohio?

Indiana's roughly 67,000 Amish in 2025 ranked third; its largest settlements are Elkhart-LaGrange in the north and the Swiss-descended Adams County community around Berne.

The Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, PA, found treatments for which once-fatal disorder?

Maple syrup urine disease, a recessive metabolic disorder unusually common among Amish and Mennonite children, became manageable through the clinic's early screening and dietary treatment, sparing families long hospital stays.