Amish Trivia
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This Amish trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the history, beliefs and everyday life of the Old Order Amish. It starts with the Anabaptist roots in Zwingli's Zürich, the 1693 split led by Jakob Ammann and the migration to William Penn's Pennsylvania, then follows the church through the Old Order division, the Beachy and New Order groups and the Supreme Court's Wisconsin v. Yoder ruling. The rest is about how the Amish live: the Ordnung and church districts, worship every other Sunday in homes, Rumspringa and adult baptism, shunning, why men grow beards but never moustaches, hooks and eyes instead of buttons, one-room schools, the Pennsylvania Dutch language, the largest settlements in Lancaster County and Holmes County, whoopie pies and shoofly pie, plus the film Witness and the extraordinary forgiveness after the Nickel Mines shooting. About a third of the questions are easy; the rest reward people who have read beyond the tourist brochures. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Amish and related topics, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Amish are named for which Anabaptist leader, whose followers split from the Swiss Mennonites in 1693?
Jakob Ammann
Jakob Ammann, a Swiss Anabaptist elder born around 1644, led the 1693 split over stricter discipline; 'Amish' was first used by his opponents in 1710 as a term of derision.
Q 02The Anabaptist movement from which the Amish emerged began in 1525 in which Swiss city?
Zürich
Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock performed the first adult rebaptisms in Zürich in January 1525, breaking with the city council's official Reformation.
Q 03Which hymnbook, first printed in 1564, do the Amish sing from in worship?
The Ausbund
The Ausbund, first printed in 1564 and built around hymns written by Anabaptist prisoners in Passau, is the oldest Christian hymnal in continuous use.
Q 04What do the Amish call the set of church rules that governs dress, technology and daily life?
The Ordnung
The Ordnung is each church district's mostly unwritten code covering dress, buggies and permitted technology; what it allows differs noticeably from district to district.
Q 05Amish migrants of 1717-1750 settled first in the area that became which Pennsylvania county?
Berks
The Northkill settlement in what became Berks County, founded around 1740, was the first sizeable Amish community in America; a 1757 raid during the French and Indian War scattered it.
Q 06Mid-19th-century Amish immigrants settled mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and which Canadian province?
Ontario
Ontario's Waterloo County drew Amish settlers from the 1820s; most of the 19th-century arrivals across North America later joined less conservative Amish Mennonite groups.
Q 07As of 2024, roughly how many Old Order Amish live in the United States?
About 405,000
The Young Center's 2024 census put the Amish population of the United States at about 405,000, spread over more than 600 settlements in over 30 states.
Q 08Because of large families and high retention, the Amish population doubles roughly how often?
Every 20 years
With families averaging six or seven children and most young people joining the church, the Amish population doubles about every 20 years; it grew 84 percent between 1992 and 2008.
Q 09What do the Amish generally call non-Amish people?
English
The Amish call all outsiders 'English', whatever their ethnicity, because the world beyond the church speaks English rather than the dialect used at home.
Q 10Which language, a form of German, do most Old Order Amish speak at home?
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch (Deitsch) is a Palatine German dialect; the 'Dutch' comes from Deitsch, meaning German, and has nothing to do with the Netherlands.
Q 11Amish church membership begins with adult baptism, usually between which ages?
16 and 23
Amish baptism is an adult choice usually made between 16 and 23; only after it is a person a full church member bound by the district's rules.
Q 12What do the Amish call the period from around age 16 when youth experience the outside world before baptism?
Rumspringa
Rumspringa is Pennsylvania German for 'running around'; elders see it mainly as a time for courtship before the young person decides on baptism.
Q 13How often do Old Order Amish hold worship services?
Every other Sunday
Amish districts meet every other Sunday, rotating among members' homes, barns and shops; the off-Sunday is spent visiting family or attending another district's service.
Q 21The Amish value Gelassenheit, a German word meaning what?
Submission to God's will
Gelassenheit, roughly 'yieldedness' or submission to God's will, underlies Amish humility, plain dress and the reluctance to draw attention to oneself.
Q 22Which US county has the world's densest Amish population, about 48% in 2020?
Holmes, Ohio
Its settlement is the second-largest overall; the largest is in Pennsylvania.
Q 23The world's largest single Amish settlement is in which Pennsylvania county?
Lancaster
Lancaster County's settlement, begun in the 1760s, numbers well over 40,000 Amish and is also the community's best-known tourist destination.
Q 14An Amish church district typically contains how many families?
20 to 40
A district of 20 to 40 families, typically 100 to 150 people, is kept small enough to meet in members' homes; when it outgrows that, it divides in two.
Q 15How are Amish bishops, ministers and deacons chosen?
By a mix of election and drawing lots
Ordination is by a mix of election and drawing lots: members nominate, then each nominee picks a hymnal, one holding a slip of paper, following the apostles' choice of Matthias.
Q 16Old Order Amish children typically finish formal schooling after which grade?
Eighth
Amish children finish school after the eighth grade, usually in their own one-room schools; further learning is practical, at home, on the farm or in the shop.
Q 17Which 1972 Supreme Court case put Amish religious freedom above compulsory high-school education?
Wisconsin v. Yoder
In Wisconsin v. Yoder, Jonas Yoder and two other fathers had been fined $5 each for keeping their 14- and 15-year-olds out of school; the Court ruled for them in 1972.
Q 18Married Amish men grow beards but are forbidden from growing what?
Moustaches
Moustaches are associated with the military, which the pacifist Amish reject; the beard signals manhood and marital status.
Q 19Instead of buttons, which are considered too flashy, Old Order Amish clothing is fastened with what?
Hooks and eyes
Hooks and eyes fasten men's coats and vests, while women typically close their dresses with straight pins; buttons are viewed as showy, though many groups allow plain ones on shirts.
Q 20What is the Amish practice of social avoidance imposed on members who are excommunicated?
Shunning
Shunning, or Meidung, cuts an excommunicated member off from normal business and social dealings with the church until they confess and are restored.
Q 24The Amish are formally exempt from which US government programme, having a religious objection to it?
Social Security
Self-employed Amish have been exempt from Social Security since 1965, and Amish employees of Amish employers since 1988; they neither pay in nor draw benefits, relying on mutual aid instead.
Q 25Which Amish subgroup, unlike the Old Order, drives cars and worships in the local language?
Beachy
Both the Beachy and New Order Amish also emphasise the New Birth, run Sunday schools and seek converts.
Q 26In which decade did the New Order Amish split from the Old Order?
1960s
The New Order Amish formed in 1966, in the 1960s, over demands for cleaner courtship practices, a ban on tobacco and a more evangelical emphasis on assurance of salvation.
Q 27Which ultra-conservative Amish affiliation emerged in Holmes County, Ohio?
Swartzentruber
The Swartzentruber Amish, who split off around 1917 under Bishop Sam Yoder, are among the strictest groups, refusing even the reflective slow-moving-vehicle triangles most Amish put on their buggies.
Q 28Which term describes reduced genetic variety in a population established by very few individuals?
The founder effect
The founder effect: nearly all Amish descend from a few hundred 18th-century immigrants, so rare recessive alleles those settlers carried are far commoner among them than in the wider population.
Q 29In Witness, the Amish boy Samuel sees a murder in which city's railway station?
Philadelphia
Young Samuel Lapp witnesses the killing of an undercover officer in a restroom at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, which draws detective John Book into hiding on the Lapp farm.
Q 30Who directed the 1985 film Witness?
Peter Weir
Peter Weir, the Australian director of Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli, earned a Best Director Oscar nomination for Witness and later made Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show.