Facts about Amish
In 2000, there were approximately 198,000 Old Order Amish in the United States, according to calculations based on the number of church districts and average district size.
The Amish do not view technology as evil, however; and individuals may petition for acceptance of a particular technology in the local community.
Amish congregations that remained in Europe slowly merged with the Mennonites.
The decorative arts play little role in authentic Amish life, although the prized Amish quilts are a genuine cultural inheritance.
Some New Order Amish will use cellphones and pagers, but most Old Order Amish will not.
Amish parents will supervise the children in new tasks to ensure that they learn to do them effectively and safely.
Some of the strictest Old Order Amish groups are the Nebraska Amish (White-top Amish), the Troyer Amish, the Swartzendruber Amish.
The Old Order Amish provide the concept that most outsiders have when they think of the "Amish."
The Amish usually, but not always, choose Amish cemeteries, and purchase gravestones which are uniform, modest, and plain; in recent years, they have been inscribed in English.
The Amish and other Anabaptists do not believe that a child can be meaningfully baptized, and it was their insistence on adult baptism that caused the Anabaptists to be persecuted in Europe.
The Amish normally avoid using the telephone because it, like electricity, interferes with the principle of separation.
Overall, the majority of Amish youth ultimately choose to join the church; the proportion simply varies from community to community.
Beachy Amish, especially those who were born roughly after 1960, tend to speak predominantly in English at home.
Amish lifestyle is dictated by the Ordnung (German, meaning: order), which differs slightly from community to community.
The Amish first began migrating to the colony of Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century, where William Penn had declared freedom of religion, and welcomed immigrants from Europe to settle.
At the equator, the rays of the sun are perpendicular to the surface of the earth on these dates.
Most Old Order and conservative Amish groups do not proselytize, and conversion to the Amish faith is rare.
The Amish movement takes its name from that of Jacob Amman (c. 1656 – c. 1730), a Swiss-German Mennonite leader.
Amish bishops are similarly chosen by lot from those selected as preachers.
The Swartzendruber Amish split from the wider Amish community because they felt that shunning was not being applied strictly enough.
Some Amish will also hire drivers for visiting family, monthly grocery shopping, or commuting to the workplace off the farm—although this too is subject to local regulation and variation.
The geographic and social isolation of Amish communities makes it difficult to determine their exact total population.
Heavy bonnets are worn over the prayer coverings when Amish women are out and about in cold weather, with the exception of the Nebraska Amish who do not wear bonnets.
A handful of American hospitals, starting in the mid 1990s, created special outreach programs to assist the Amish.
During the World Wars, Amish nonresistance sparked many incidents of harassment, and young Amish men forcibly inducted into the services were subjected to various forms of ill-treatment.
Some of these disorders are quite rare, or even unique, and serious enough that they increase the mortality rate among Amish children.
In certain Amish groups, however, electricity can be used in very specific situations.
Asked by a reporter if the community was angry about the killings, one Amish grandmother, Lizzie Fisher, was adamant.
The large majority of Amish are united by a common Swiss-German ancestry, language, and culture, and they marry within the Amish community.
In 1961, the United States Internal Revenue Service announced that since the Amish refuse United States Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance, they need not pay Social Security taxes.
Some Amish are afflicted by inheritable genetic disorders, including dwarfism (Ellis-van Creveld syndrome).
Today, some Amish, particularly those who run businesses, use voice mail service.
The so-called Swiss Amish speak an Alemannic German dialect that they call "Swiss."
All other Amish groups use either Pennsylvania German or "Swiss" German as their in-group language of discourse.
Some Amish communities will actively shun those who decide to leave the church after having been baptized, even who associate with an Amish congregation with different doctrines.
The Old Order Amish have worship services every other Sunday at private homes where they are often seated in several different rooms, men separate from women.
Within a few decades, the more progressive Amish became Amish Mennonites, and were later absorbed into the Old Mennonites (not to be confused with Old Order Mennonites).
Suicide rates for the Amish of Lancaster County were 5.5 per 100,000 in 1980, compared to overall rate in the U.S.A. of 12.5 per 100,000.
The Amish, especially those of the Old Order, are probably most known for their avoidance of certain modern technologies.
Some Beachy Amish have relocated to Central America, including a sizable community near San Ignacio, Belize.
During summer months, the majority of Amish children go barefoot, including to school.
The Amish rely on their church and community for support, and thus reject the concept of insurance.
In Allen County, Indiana, for example, the Amish engage Hockemeyer Funeral Home, the only local funeral director who offers a horse-drawn hearse and embalms the body.
On the morning of Monday, October 2, 2006, a gunman took hostages at West Nickel Mines School, a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, a village in Bart Township of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
The Amish are distinguished by the highest incidence of twinning in a known human population, as well as various metabolic disorders and unusual distribution of blood-types.
The meetings themselves were an innovation, for the notion that bishops should get together to work for uniformity was unprecedented in the Amish tradition.
The modern child labor laws conflict with allowing the Amish parents to decide whether their children are competent in hazardous tasks.
The Amish of Lancaster County, however, do have their own informal self-insured health plan, called Church Aid, which helps members with catastrophic medical expense.
The Amish practice of adult baptism is part of the admission into the church.
Other notable Amish communities are located in Kent County, Delaware and Montgomery County, New York.
The largest Amish settlements are in Holmes County, Ohio, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and LaGrange, Indiana.
The Amish hold funeral services in the home, however, rather than using the funeral parlor.
The Amish do not educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle.
Amish children are expected to follow the will of their parents in all issues, but when they come of age, they must decide for themselves whether to make an adult, permanent commitment to the church.
The Amish are divided into separate fellowships consisting of geographical districts or congregations.
Amish families without phones will also use trusted "English" neighbors as contact points for passing on family emergency messages.
Within a few decades, the more progressive Amish became Amish Mennonites, and were later absorbed into the Old Mennonites (not to be confused with Old Order Mennonites).
The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for its rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on community or which might start a competition for status-goods or cultivate individual or family vanity.