State Of The Nation Spreadsheet

Would you guess there are fewer Amish today? You'd be so wrong. "There’s no denying that the Amish are fascinating to the rest of us ("the English," in Amish terms). They’re the topic of reality television shows and documentaries, a particularly memorable Nancy Drew novel and the Academy Award-winning 1985 film "Witness." Vanilla Ice "went Amish." We buy their furniture and jam, and may occasionally spot their buggies when driving on country roads through America’s heartland. Many may not realize, however, that though the Amish make up only a tiny percentage of Americans (less than 0.001 percent), the Amish population has grown enormously since the early 1960s, with much of the increase occurring in the last two decades."