Amish in Canada

{{Short description|none}}

{{merge to|Amish|discuss=Talk:Amish in Canada#Merge proposal|date=December 2024}}

The Amish of Canada settled in southwestern Ontario, having come from the United States in 1815 and directly from Europe in 1822. They numbered about 1,000 people in 1991.{{Cite web |title=Amish |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/amish-emc#:~:text=The%20Amish%20of%20Canada%20settled,have%20preserved%20their%20German%20dialect. |access-date=2024-12-16 |website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca |language=en}} Today, the Canadian Amish population exceeds 6,000 people, living in 20 different communities.{{Cite web |date=2011-11-18 |title=The Amish in Canada: 2024 Guide – Amish America |url=https://amishamerica.com/canada-amish/ |access-date=2024-12-16 |language=en-US}}

Rising land prices are causing some Amish families to leave Ontario.{{cite web|url=https://www.saltwire.com/prince-edward-island/amish-communities-checking-out-province-97693 |title=Amish communities checking out province |publisher=The Guardian (Charlottetown) |accessdate=2024-12-17}} Since 2015, some Amish families have settled in provinces other than Ontario, including Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.{{cite journal|url=https://bhacjournal.org/index.php/JPAC/article/view/7944 |title=Understanding Amish Migrations to New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Manitoba

|date=2021

|journal=The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities |doi=10.18061/jpac.v1i2.7944

|accessdate=2024-12-16

|last1=Arsenault

|first1=Gabriel

|volume=1

|issue=2

|pages=22–41

|doi-access=free

}} Since 2017, some Amish families originally from Ontario have settled in Manitoba's Rural Municipality of Stuartburn.{{cite web|url=https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2017/11/06/amish-putting-down-new-roots |title=Amish putting down new roots |date=6 November 2017 |publisher=Winnipeg Free Press |accessdate=2024-12-17}}

The Old Order Amish in Canada trace their origins to two distinct waves of Amish Mennonite migration. The first wave occurred in the 1880s, when a group of Amish Mennonites from Europe settled in Ontario. The second wave of Old Order Amish migration occurrd in the 1950s, when Amish communities from states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Iowa established settlements in Ontario.{{Cite web |title=Old Order Amish {{!}} Mennonite Archives of Ontario |url=https://uwaterloo.ca/mennonite-archives-ontario/catalogs/archives/old-order-amish |access-date=2024-12-17 |website=uwaterloo.ca |language=en}}

class="wikitable sortable floatright" |+ Amish population by Canadian province and year
data-sort-type="text" | Canada ! data-sort-type="number" | 1992 ! data-sort-type="number" | 2010 ! data-sort-type="number" | 2020 ! data-sort-type="number" | 2024
style="text-align: left;" | All of Canada	2,295	4,725	5,995	6,190
style="text-align: left;" | Ontario	2,295	4,725	5,605	5,785
style="text-align: left;" | Prince Edward Isl.	0	0	250	280
style="text-align: left;" | New Brunswick	0	0	70	125

The majority of Old Order settlements are located in the province of Ontario, namely Oxford (Norwich Township) and Norfolk Counties. A small community is also established in Bruce County (Huron-Kinloss Township) near Lucknow.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

In 2016, several dozen Old Order Amish families founded two new settlements in Kings County in the province of Prince Edward Island. Increasing land prices in Ontario had reportedly limited the ability of members in those communities to purchase new farms.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/amish-scout-new-community-in-p-e-i-1.2802434 |title=Amish scout new community in P.E.I. |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=January 31, 2017 |archive-date=September 12, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912145659/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/amish-scout-new-community-in-p-e-i-1.2802434 |url-status=live }} At about the same time a new settlement was founded near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, only about {{convert|12|km|mi|abbr=on}} from Amish settlements in Maine. In 2017, an Amish settlement was founded in Manitoba near Stuartburn.[http://amishamerica.com/amish-moving-to-fourth-canadian-province/ Amish Moving To Fourth Canadian Province] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006194623/http://amishamerica.com/amish-moving-to-fourth-canadian-province/ |date=October 6, 2018 }} at amishamerica.com. In 2024 this colony ceased to exist, as the Amish have sold their properties and moved to Minnesota.{{Cite web |title=Amish Studies |url=https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/population-2024/ |access-date=2025-01-13 |language=en-US}}