US Amish population surges and spredds

America's Amish population has nearly doubled and spread out in the past 16 years due to large families, more marriages within the community and longer lifespans, a study showed on Wednesday.

The population grew 86 percent to 231,000 in 2008 from 125,000 in 1992, or 4 percent a year, and is set to double from this year's level by 2026 if the current growth rate continues, according to the study by Donald Kraybill, a sociology professor at Elizabethtown University in Pennsylvania.

The Amish, a Christian sect that migrated to the United States from Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, refuse to drive cars, use computers or connect to a public electricity supply. They speak a German dialect and travel through their predominantly rural communities in horse-drawn buggies.