The persistently high fertility of a North American population: A 25-year restudy of parity among the Ohio Amish

Abstract

Why do the North American Amish maintain high fertility when surrounding populations have nearly all completed the demographic transition? Using the same theoretical predictors and methods as a 1996 Population Studies paper, we explore fertility changes, specifically changes in mean parity, between 1988 and 2015 among one sizeable Amish population in Ohio. Findings suggest that wealth flow shifts (as measured by a decline in farming families) and institutional changes (reflected in Amish denominational gradations) help to explain a decline in mean parity from 5.3 to 4.85, while ideological pronatalism (represented by higher fertility among church leaders) helps to explain why fertility has not been more responsive to structural incentives to limit family size. While this restudy confirms the trend of a slow decline in Amish fertility, it also invites a more methodologically expansive inquiry into Amish fertility patterns.

Keywords:

• demographic transition theory
• high fertility
• population change
• agrarianism
• Anabaptist
• New Order Amish
• Andy Weaver Amish
• religion and fertility
• ethnicity and fertility
• Christianity and fertility

Notes

1 Please direct all correspondence to Samson Wasao, International Friendships, Inc., 1520 Old Henderson Road, Suite 200, Columbus, Ohio 43220, USA; or by Email: [email protected]

2 We acknowledge the Truman State University (Kirksville, MO) autumn 2016 demography class for helping to develop and clean the data set: Taylor McLeod (leader), Emily Ackley, Lydia Bagnall, Philip Bliese, Melissa Janney, Genevieve Kuhn, Thomas Lampe, Katherine Lee, Andrea Martin, Clare Mattione, Chelsea McCoy, Ashley Notter, David Phan, Ashley Robinson, Kathleen Russell, Steven Shearman, Rachel Smith, Jordan Vassel, and Malika Weekly. We also acknowledge further contributions of Joseph Donnermeyer and Kellan Mooi.