Amish Mortality Rates in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

This research documents the mortality rates of the Amish from 2014 through 2021 using data found in The Diary of the Old Order Churches, a monthly publication designed to serve the Old Order Amish throughout the Americas. Data collected included month and year of death, age at death, gender, place of death by state/province/country, reported cause of death, and family name of parents in cases of stillbirth or infant mortality. Data revealed that the Amish have experienced five peaks in death rates, two prior to COVID and three during the COVID pandemic. Data also revealed differences in deaths due to accidents, cancer, and heart issues related to gender.

Religious Ritual Compliance with COVID‐19 Mandates in Plain Communities: A Case Study of Amish Obituaries and Funeral Practices

“…As the Amish restrict communication technologies (e.g., computers, telephones, and smartphones), correspondence newspapers are ideal and vital for distributing information across Amish communities, including obituaries. Previous studies have estimated mortality and excess death rates in Anabaptist communities from obituaries published in correspondence newspapers, including The Diary (Dewalt 2022;Stein et al 2021). We content analyzed all obituaries from January 2020 to October 2020 6 editions of The Diary for reference to COVID-19-related changes.…”