High Fertility of Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico

Document Type

Article

Authors

Judy Clark Felt, Population Reference Bureau, Washington, D.C.
Jeanne Clare Ridley, 2Center for Population Research, Georgetown University
Gordon Allen, National Institute of Mental Health, Public Health Service, Bethesda, Maryland
Calvin Redekop, Conrad Grebel College, Waterloo, Ontario

Abstract

Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico appear to demonstrate natural fertility, using no form of artificial birth control and apparently not attempting to limit family size. The resulting fertility is nearly as high as that of the Hutterites, although the Mennonites lack the communal economic system of the latter. Most Mennonites in Mexico migrated from Canada in the 1920s, and the largest single settlement, called the Manitoba Colony, is one of four in the stateof Chihuahua. A 1967 partial census obtained data from 38% of the Mennonite households. Family size in the sample was close to that in a local survey taken in the same year. Available church records matched with census forms permitted verification of and corrections to 560 female reproductive histories. The median number of live births to women over age 45 years was 9.5, compared with 10.4 in the Hutterites. Age-specific marital fertility rates and birth intervals closely resembled those of the Hutterites.

Recommended Citation

Felt, Judy Clark; Ridley, Jeanne Clare; Allen, Gordon; and Redekop, Calvin (1990) "High Fertility of Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico," Human Biology: Vol. 62: Iss. 5, Article 7.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol62/iss5/7