Michigan Is America’s #6 Amish State — Here Are Its 10 Biggest Communities

Michigan is home to America’s sixth-largest Amish population. Over 20,000 Amish live in more than 50 settlements across the state.

These ten communities are the largest in Michigan, based on the most current Amish population estimates.

Population numbers via Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College (source link at bottom).

1. Centreville

Centreville (St. Joseph County)
Community founded: 1910
Total Amish population: 2,210

Michigan’s largest and oldest Amish settlement sits in St. Joseph County, on the border with Indiana. It traces its roots to 1910, when the Jacob Schwartz family arrived from Allen County, Indiana, settling near Nottawa. Other “Swiss Amish” families followed, and over time Amish from non-Swiss communities moved in as well. So the group today is a mix of Swiss and Pennsylvania German descent.

It’s a well-established community, now 18 church districts strong, with farming and a good number of Amish businesses across the area. It lies only a half-hour from the much larger Shipshewana, Indiana settlement.

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2. California/Montgomery

California/Montgomery (Branch County)
Community founded: 1960
Total Amish population: 1,800

The state’s second-largest community lies in Branch County, also on Michigan’s southern border with Indiana. This is a very plain Swartzentruber settlement, founded in 1960 around California Township and the hamlet of Montgomery.

Branch County is one of the most heavily Amish-settled parts of the state – home to several distinct communities – and this is the largest of them, at 12 church districts.

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3. Clare

Clare (Clare County)
Community founded: 1980
Total Amish population: 1,410

Clare County is home to two distinct Amish communities. The one nearer to the town of Clare is Michigan’s third-largest Amish community. Founded in 1980, it’s now 11 church districts in size.

The Clare area is known for its auctions, and for being one of several rotating sites of the Horse Progress Days festival, drawing thousands of Amish attendees.

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4. Beaverton/Gladwin

Beaverton/Gladwin (Gladwin County)
Community founded: 1979
Total Amish population: 1,095

Gladwin County is home to two neighboring Amish settlements. The older and larger of the pair, founded in 1979 near Beaverton, today numbers over 1,000 Amish people, in six church districts. Another plain Swartzentruber Amish group.

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5. Stanwood/Morley

Stanwood/Morley (Mecosta County)
Community founded: 1982
Total Amish population: 1,025

Mecosta County, in the west-central part of the state, rounds out Michigan’s top five. The Stanwood and Morley area settlement dates to 1982 and has grown to eight church districts.

It’s one of multiple communities clustered through this stretch of central Michigan, a region that has drawn steady Amish settlement over the past few decades.

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6. Cass City

Cass City (Sanilac, Huron & Tuscola Counties)
Community founded: 1993
Total Amish population: 965

Up in Michigan’s Thumb, the Cass City community spreads across three counties – Sanilac, Huron, and Tuscola. Amish here raise calves, and operate small businesses among other occupations, including woodworking, logging, as well as some dairy farming.

We’ve featured this one before in a photo set from Jim Halverson, who captured images of the farms and back roads of this peaceful community.

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7. Quincy

Quincy (Branch County)
Community founded: 1977
Total Amish population: 770

A second Branch County community makes the list at number seven. Quincy is a Swiss Amish settlement, founded in 1977 by families who came by way of Norfolk, New York – a group with roots in the large Swiss Amish community of Allen County, Indiana.

Swiss Amish are a distinct branch of the Amish world, with their own dialect of German, and customs that set them apart from the more numerous Pennsylvania German Amish.

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8. Blanchard

Blanchard (Isabella County)
Community founded: 1983
Total Amish population: 755

Founded in 1983, the Blanchard community in central Michigan’s Isabella County today numbers seven church districts. Have a closer look at an Amish auction in this community here.

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9. Camden

Camden (Hillsdale County)
Community founded: 1956
Total Amish population: 740

Camden, in Hillsdale County near the Ohio and Indiana lines, is one of Michigan’s older Amish places, founded in 1956. Hillsdale and neighboring Branch County together form one of the more heavily Amish-settled regions in the state.

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10. Marlette

Marlette (Sanilac County)
Community founded: 1987
Total Amish population: 715

Rounding out the top ten is Marlette, a second settlement in Sanilac County and the Thumb region. Founded in 1987, it’s now five congregations strong. Among the Amish-run businesses in the community is Yoder’s General Store, carrying a variety of items including home goods, kitchenware, cookbooks, foods, and more.

For more on Amish communities in the Great Lakes State, check out our Michigan Amish state guide.

See also:

1. Pennsylvania’s 10 Largest Amish Communities
2. Ohio’s 10 Largest Amish Communities
3. Indiana’s 10 Largest Amish Communities
4. Wisconsin’s 10 Largest Amish Communities
5. New York’s 10 Largest Amish Communities

Population numbers sourced from the Young Center (Elizabethtown College) Amish Settlement List.