The annual horse-and-buggy Amish population figures have been released by the Young Center at Elizabethtown College. The total Amish population is estimated at 383,565 people. That breaks down to 377,275 in the United States, 6,100 in Canada, and 190 in South America. And of course the count continues to steadily rise. If we look at the numbers from just five years ago, the Amish population…
Linda Byler is one of the most successful of all authors of Amish romance novels. One thing that makes Linda stand out is that she herself is Amish. Linda recently spoke to the UK Daily Mail. For those unfamiliar, that is a tabloid paper. And the article has a tabloidy feel, but that aside it’s interesting – in part because of how frankly Linda speaks….
Judy Stavisky, author of In Plain View: The Daily Lives of Amish Women, paid a visit recently to the Amish community at Unity, Maine, with stops at a pair of businesses. The Unity community has been featured here and in other media fairly often in the past. For example, here’s a look at some of the things that make Unity an atypical Amish community (which…
One thing I like about doing this Amish Homes series is the variety of homes we get to see. Compare what you’re about to see with the last one we covered, a Lancaster Amish shop home. This week’s Amish home is found in Michigan. The description via realtor.com: At the end of W. 11 Mile, you will find this charming off-grid Amish built home and…
Back in May we heard from Brad Igou on Amish Voices Volume 2: In Their Own Words, 1993-2020, a collection of writings from the Amish publication Family Life, which Brad compiled. Brad also shared some unused selections at that time. Today we’ve got another batch of writings that didn’t quite make it into Amish Voices 2. As Brad explained, choosing which ones to include and…
If you have Amish friends or acquaintances, you might just have a strong memory of how you met them. I can clearly recall the morning years ago I met one Amish couple who eventually became close family friends. Their oldest child – who was then just a tot in a baby seat perched on the back of a horse-drawn planter – is now out of…
The home we’re going to look at today will probably have some people saying “that’s not an Amish home!” Well, it happens to be one. It’s just one of the more modern-looking homes (at least inside) you’ll see among the Amish. That said, the interior style you’ll see here is becoming increasingly common among Amish in more progressive communities, like Lancaster County, where this home…
Reader Denise Joyal sends a report from a benefit auction which took place in May in Hopkinton, Iowa. While there, Denise purchased a $3 “junk box” – and by the looks of what was inside, she got a great deal! Let’s check out what three Washingtons can get you at an Amish auction these days. First, here’s the newspaper ad for the auction. It was…
In what looks like another affinity fraud scheme targeting Plain Anabaptist people, the Department of Justice is seeking the arrest of a man who collected over $30 million over a decade-long span – telling donors the money was for Bibles and other Christian literature to be distributed in China. Jason Gerald Shenk allegedly got at least some of his money (and perhaps most of it)…
The Amish population is growing fast. It’s been growing fast for decades. And that doesn’t seem to be changing. How large will the Amish population get in our lifetimes? On the recent 1950s Amish film post, Lance left a comment that brought this back to mind: In 1900 there were just 5000 total Amish world wide. By this video’s filming, there were 8000 in just…