Amish: Remain or Leave?

3

11,000 persons.⁸As population density has increased, has the number of
persons leaving the Amish also increased? In this study the term for
persons leaving the Amish community will be "defectors."Defectors
are children who have left their parental home and have been
identified in the directory by their parents as having made the
decision not to join the Amish church.

As Table 1 demonstrates, the percentage of persons leaving the
Amish in this settlement has decreased from 21% among those
individuals who were born in the 1930s to 5% in the 1960 cohort. The
Table also indicates that, with the exception of the most recent birth
cohort (those born in the 1960s), migration has been fairly stable. This
finding is not consistent with data from other settlements. For example,

Donald B. Kraybill⁹has reported that in recent decades as many as
15% of the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania have migrated to
other settlements. Significant numbers of Amish from Geauga,
Trumbull, and Astabula counties in northeastern Ohio are moving south

to Hart County, Kentucky.¹⁰However, in the Elkhart-LaGrange
community it is clear that the majority of young people have chosen to
remain within the settlement of their birth rather than to emigrate to
less populous areas of the country or to take the more radical step of
leaving the Amish.

TABLE 1.PERCENT OF CHILDREN REMAINING AMISH,
LEAVING THE CHURCH, OR MIGRATING
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Years of TotalRemainingLeavingMigrating

Birth

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a_{1920-1929100 ( 772)75 (582)18 (137)6 (47)}
a_{1930-1939100 (1095)68 (745) 21 (234)8 (88)}
a_{1940-1949100 (1737)75 (1310)14 (245)8 (130)}



8_{. The dynamics of this population increase have been described in an earlier paper:}
Thomas J. Meyers, "Population Growth and Its Consequences in the Elkhart-LaGrange Old
Order Amish Settlement," MQR, 65 (July, 1991), 308-21.

9_{. Donald B. Kraybill,The Riddle of Amish Culture(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University}
Press, 1989), 195.

10_{. Dana Canedy, "Ohio Amish Build New Kentucky Home," Cleveland Plain Dealer}
(July, 1, 1990), 12a-13a.