Birth Rates, Contraception Usage, and Demographic Data Relating to the Beachy Amish-Mennonite Churches
Working paper, updated in 2010.
Original version:
Harrisonburg, VA: James Madison University.
Anderson, Cory. 2005.
Amish Fertility in the United States: Comparative Evidence from the American Community Survey and Amish Population Registries
Demographic Research
Stone, Lyman, Cory Anderson, and Stephanie Thiehoff. 2025
52(26):869-86.
Access at Demographic Research
Access at PubMed
Research Points
- Amish respondents may be identifiable in the American Community Survey (ACS)—an annual federal survey to 3 million+ Americans—when we pull responses with a combination of Pennsylvania Dutch language, absence of household telephone, and farming variables
- Anderson’s Cross-Sectional Amish Population & Environment Database (CAPED-2010s) and the ACS Amish-oriented responses produce consistent fertility statistics: total fertility rates just over six children, highest fertility ages 20-29, very low non-marital fertility
- Cross-validation of separate large databases (ACS and CAPED-2010s) confirms reliability of both approaches for studying Amish populations
- This methodological innovation enables future research connecting Amish demographic outcomes with social predictors through other ACS variables
Access Related Content From The Project: "The Amish Population Health Review Series"
Reviving the Demographic Study of the Amish.
Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
Colyer, Cory, Cory Anderson, Joseph Donnermeyer, Rachel Stein, and Samson Wasao. 2017.
5(1):96-119.
The Persistently High Fertility of a North American Population: A 25-Year Restudy of Parity among the Ohio Amish
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Wasao, Samson, Cory Anderson, and Christian Mpody. 2021.
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Collecting and Analyzing Micro Data about the Amish, a Rapidly Growing Ethno-Religious North American Population.
Population Association of America annual conference. Virtual.
Anderson, Cory, and Samson Wasao. 2021.
Persistently High Fertility in a Low Fertility Context: How Do America’s Amish Heterogeneously Respond to Fertility-Reducing Structural Incentives?
Presented at the Population Association of America annual conference. Atlanta, GA.
Anderson, Cory, George Hayward, Shuai Zhou, Guangqing Chi, and Mary Shenk. 2022.
The Population Structure of the Amish: The Demographic Architecture of One of America’s Fastest Growing Groups
Presented at the Population Association of America annual conference. New Orleans, LA.
Anderson, Cory, and Stephanie Thiehoff. 2023.
Neighbors’ Social Attitudes Predict Variations in Live Births among the Amish of Holmes County, Ohio, United States
Demographic Research
Shetler, Anna, and Cory Anderson. 2025.
53(25):773-820.
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