American Community Spotlight On: The “Plain People”, Part I

American Community Spotlight On: The “Plain People”

Part I: Demographics, Home Life and Housing

Being raised in Pennsylvania, I may be more conscious of Amish and Mennonite culture than most Americans, but I think it’s fair to say that the idea of the “plain people” – those who eschew any modern conveniences or unnecessary adornments for the sake of their religious beliefs – tends to capture the imagination of a society that is more technologically dependent and appearance-oriented than ever before.

Unfortunately, most of what’s known about the Amish and Mennonites (defined here as those who speak Pennsylvania Dutch – a dialect of German – in the home) tends to be qualitative – that is, based on interviews and case-studies – rather than quantitative (i.e. statistical). This is largely because these groups are small enough that very few national data sets contain sufficient numbers to analyze. The American Community Survey is a clear exception.

The American Community Survey (ACS) 2009-2010 contained 3,084 individuals who speak Pennsylvania Dutch in the home – almost all of these will be Amish or Mennonite. Based on this sample (using the ACS sample weights), it is estimated that there were 134,523 Pennsylvania Dutch speakers in the U.S. in 2010, up from 108,573.

Thirty-nine percent of these could be considered “Old Order” Amish or Mennonite – defined here as those who do not use electricity, have a telephone, or own a motor vehicle. Throughout the analyses, “Old Order” Amish will be compared with other Amish. (The term “Amish” should be understood to include Pennsylvania Dutch speakers regardless of whether they are Amish or Mennonite.)

A descriptive analysis of the weighted sample yielded the following information:

Demographics:

Old Order Amish are much younger, on average, than their counterparts in the less strict Amish orders and in the U.S. overall. A whopping 54.5% of Old Order Amish are children under the age of 18, compared to just 39.1% for other Amish and 24.1% for the U.S. overall.

While the U.S. overall grows much more racially and ethnically diverse, the Amish are virtually all non-Hispanic whites (99.6%) and native-born U.S. citizens (also 99.6%). Amish are most likely to report their ancestry as “German” (19.9% of Old Order and 30.5% of other Amish) or “Pennsylvania German” (40.1% of Old Order and 16.6% of other), although 8.4% of Old Order and 17.3% of other Amish report themselves as Swiss. About 9% of all Amish simply report themselves as “American”, and 14.4% did not report their ancestry.

Speakers of Pennsylvania Dutch are most commonly found in Pennsylvania (where 37.5% live and 40.6% were born), in Ohio (where 24.2% live and 25.7% were born), Indiana (where 10.6% live and 10.6% were born), and New York (where 4.7% live and 3.4% were born). Among those 65 and older, 59.9% were born in Pennsylvania and 17.6% in Ohio, while among those under age 18, only 36.0% and 25.1% respectively were born in those two states. This reflects the recent Amish “diaspora”, where high levels of fertility have led to a shortage of farm land in traditionally Amish communities, forcing young Amish families to relocate to areas where land is more available.

Despite the fact that the Amish (by definition, in this analysis) speak Pennsylvania Dutch in the home, they tend to be quite competent in English, with 62.5% of Old Order and 74.1% of other Amish reporting that they speak English “very well”. Only 1.4% of Old Order Amish and 0.2% of other Amish report that they do not speak English at all (although this rises to 2.7% among Amish elders age 65 and older, regardless of the strictness of their sect).

Home Life:

Household composition. Amish households are large, with more than one-third of Old Order households consisting of 6-10 persons, and another 12.8% consisting of more than 10 persons. The median household size is 6 people in Old Order households and 3 people in other Amish households.

Despite the conception of the Amish living in “traditional” multi-generational households, the data show little sign of this. Only 2.3% of Amish households are multigenerational families, and only 1.8% of households contain a “subfamily”. Both numbers are lower than for U.S. households overall, and are lower among the Old Order Amish than among other Amish.

Marital status. Amish adults are very likely to be married, and the percent married differs little between Old Order and other Amish. It is uncommon for Amish to be currently divorced or separated. Despite the high rates of marriage, marriage of minor teens is not widely practiced (with 1.1% of Old Order 16- and 17-year-olds married compared to 0.5% of teens the same age in the U.S. population overall). Still, 12.9% of Amish aged 18-21 report being married (versus 4.5% of the U.S. population of the same age), with little difference between sects.

Among those Amish in their first marriage, the median age at marriage was 21 for women and 22 for men (versus 23 and 25, respectively, for the U.S. overall). Age at marriage varies little by sect, and appears to have changed little between the oldest Amish and those under the age of 40 (although it has changed substantially for the U.S. population overall).

Children. An amazing 69.5% of Old Order households and 47.4% of other Amish households contain children under the age of 18 (versus 33.6% of U.S. households overall). Among households with children, the median number of own children is 4 for Old Order and 3 for other Amish (versus 2 for the U.S.). More than a third of Old Order households with children (37.1%) and more than one in ten other Amish households with children contain 6 or more children (versus 0.5% of U.S. households with children overall).

A striking 23.6% of Old Order Amish women ages 15-44 report having given birth in the past year, compared to 16.0% of other Amish women and 6.7% of U.S. women of the same age overall. Just under 5% of the new mothers are under the age of 21 (versus 10.5% of new mothers in the U.S. overall), while 3.0% were older than age 44 (versus 1.9% in the U.S.).

Housing:

Fifty-nine percent of Old Order Amish and 35% of other Amish single-family homes are situated on 10 or more acres (compared to 4.7% of single-family homes in the U.S. overall). Amish homes are large, with a median of 7 rooms and 4 bedrooms (compared to 5 rooms and 3 bedrooms in U.S. households overall), with 11.4% having 6 or more bedrooms and 16.3% having 10 or more rooms.

Amish households are about as likely as the U.S. overall to own their home with a mortgage (41.9% of Amish versus 43.9% overall), but are much more likely to own their home free and clear (41.0% versus 21.5%). Only 12.9% of Amish households rent, compared to 32.7% of U.S. households overall.

The Amish are most likely to heat with wood (39.0% verses 2.1% of U.S. households overall), followed by fuel oil/kerosene (15.1%, versus 6.5% of U.S. households), utility gas (12.3%, versus 49.5%), or bottled, tank, or LP gas (12.1% versus 5.0%). Only 9% heat with electricity, compared to 35.4% of U.S. households overall.

Old Order Amish are less likely than other Amish to have most conveniences (the exception being a stove), but other Amish are comparable to the U.S. in terms of having bathtub/showers, refrigerators, hot/cold running water, stoves, telephones, and flush toilets.

Pro Athletes (and Coaches and Umpires)

In honor of March Madness, I decided to focus my first "spotlight" on professional athletes, coaches, and umpires. This is kind of a mismatch, because March Madness is college athletics, and I've specifically excluded college students due to the difficulty identifying them in a survey that asks only about paid work.

We defined pro athletes as those whose 1) self-reported their occupation as “athletes, coaches, umpires and related workers”, 2) self-reported their industry as “independent artists, performing arts, spectator sports and related industries”, 3) were in the labor force and were currently employed, 4) were not enrolled in school, and 5) reported wage/salary income.

The American Community Survey (ACS) 2008, 2009 and 2010 contained 570 individuals who met this definition. Based on this sample (using the ACS sample weights), it is estimated that there were 23,969 people who met this definition in the U.S. in 2008, 21,369 in 2009, and 23,969 in 2010. A descriptive analysis of the weighted sample yielded the following information:

Demographics:

It’s no great surprise that most pro athletes are young men. Nine out of 10 (90.8%) of self-reported athletes, coaches and umpires in the spectator sports industry are male. Although coaches and umpires are perhaps older than the athletes themselves, we see that this job category is still substantially younger than the non-student workforce overall. Almost 43% were under the age of 30, compared to only 19% of the civilian labor force.

Although the stereotype of a pro athlete is African-American, we see that 67.2% are non-Hispanic white, while only 19.4% are non-Hispanic black, and 9.6% are Hispanic. Still, the proportion of African-Americans is substantially higher than in the civilian labor force overall (10.9%). We should keep in mind that this category includes not only the stereotypical ballplayers, but also sports figures such as tennis players, golfers, and race care drivers (as well as coaches and umpires).

Most American athletes are citizens of the U.S., but 16.1% are not. Another 4.7% are naturalized citizens. Athletes who were not born U.S. citizens are far more likely to be from Canada (31.3%) than from any other country.

Personal Life:

The stereotype of an athlete is a wealthy playboy bachelor, and we do find that only 45.6% of athletes are married, while 46.6% have never been married and 7.5% are divorced or separated. This is a higher percentage of bachelors than in the labor force overall, but this is partially due to the younger age of the sports figures. At the youngest ages (late teens and 20s), athletes are less likely to be married than people of similar age in the civilian labor force. By the 30s, however, the percent who are currently married is much more similar (although by this age the sports figure group are probably less likely to be actual athletes and more likely to be coaches or umpires). Contrary to the “swinging bachelor” stereotype, professional sports figures do not seem to divorce at higher rates than their counterparts in the civilian labor force, and by their late 30s are actually substantially more likely than others to be married.

The “dumb jock” stereotype also does not appear to hold water. Pro sports figures are not any more likely to have dropped out of high school than their counterparts in the civilian labor force, and are actually MORE likely to have attended college (80.6% versus 60.4%) and specifically to have completed a bachelor’s degree (47.2% versus 30.8%).

Career:

Working hours for sports figures vary considerably… this is a group that is much more likely to work fewer than 20 hours per week compared to the non-student civilian labor force, but also much more likely to work more than 50 hours a week. Some of this variation may depend on whether the respondent’s sport was “in season” at the time he or she was surveyed – only 64.3% of sports figures reported working 50 or more weeks in the past year.

Income showed the same sort of U-shaped curve as working hours, indicating that professional sports can be either a very good or a very bad career choice financially. More than one out of five full-time athletes/coaches (20.7%) reported that they had earned less than $20,000 in the previous year. But at the same time, one in four (25.1%) earned $100,000 or more, 15.6% earned $250,000 or more! As seen below, full-time professional sports figures were more likely to be in the lowest income bracket than their counterparts in the civilian labor force overall, but were also far more likely to be in highest income bracket.

The appropriate citation for data taken from this blogpost (in MLA format) is:

American Community Survey, 2008-2010 Public Use Microdata, as cited by McGinnis, Sandra, "Pro Athletes (and Coaches and Umpires)". Weblog entry. American Community Spotlight. Date posted: March 23, 2012. Date accessed: ?. http://americancommunityspotlight.blogspot.com/.

Introduction (and a little census history)

Hi all--

My name is Sandra, and I'm a sociologist/demographer in upstate New York. Those who know me know that I'm an unrepentant data geek (or as my friend Tracey prefers, "data whore" - a term I wear with pride). Apparently crunching numbers for my day job just isn't enough to give me my fix these days, because now I can't stop when I come home.

I spend much of my working days playing with the American Community Survey (ACS), which is carried out by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Once upon a time the Census Bureau had a "long form" that went to a lucky 1 out of 20 U.S. households in every census year (once a decade). The "long form" census data was invaluable to social scientists because of the depth of information on such a large sample of American households. The downside was that it was available only every ten years. Since 2005, the Census Bureau has been phasing in the ACS as an annual survey that includes all the questions of the "long form". The downside is that the annual ACS has a smaller sample size than the decennial "long form" data (although still HUGE by statistical standards!). The upside is that it's annual!!! How cool is that?!?! The last "long form" data collection was done in the 2000 U.S. census. By 2010, the "long form" had been completely replaced by the ACS.

In my day job, I use the ACS for studying the demographics of health workers. But now that I know the data set so well, I'm constantly coming up withe questions in my personal life (reading the news, talking to friends, thinking about social issues) that I just want to sneak into the data and get quick answers for. Then it occurred to me... maybe other people are interested in some of these answers, too!

Thus, I decided to launch a blog that will shine a weekly "spotlight" on a particular group of Americans - where they live, what they do, what their families look like, etc. The possibilities are endless! I don't really expect everybody to read the blog weekly (and if you do, you're probably sick like me, lol), but I'm hoping that people researching a particular topic will stumble onto relevant posts and find information that they wouldn't necessarily find elsewhere. I do ask, however, that if you pull data from my website you give it the proper citation.

That's it for now! Look for the first American Community Spotlight later this week :D

Sandra