By the numbers: Amish children are people most likely to die in farm accidents in Lancaster County

From a purely statistical perspective, Amish children are the people most likely to be killed in farm accidents in Lancaster County.

Unintentional injuries, on a farm or anywhere, are the No. 4 cause of death in America and the only cause not from a disease in the Top 10, killing about 225,000 people a year, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Pennsylvania farms, the rate of fatal accidents has been declining slightly since 2005, with 145 farm-related fatalities from 2005-09, compared to 141 from 2010-14 and 137 from 2015-19, according to data from Penn State Extension.

Lancaster County, the state’s leading agricultural producer, also has produced more farm-related deaths in the last 20 years than any other county in the state.

The county has seen from one to seven farm deaths a year since 2000, and children are the most likely victims. Children 5 or younger account for more than half of the 23 farm deaths covered by LNP | LancasterOnline since 2016; teenagers account for five other deaths.

In 2022, four people, including two toddlers and a teenager, died in accidents on farms. In 2023, two young children and one teenager, all Amish, died.

The Amish own at least half of the nearly 5,000 farms in Lancaster County and probably more, said Conrad Kanagy, a professor of sociology at Elizabethtown College who has studied Amish farm demographics. Figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture seem to bear that out, with only 49% of the farms in the county having internet access; the Amish eschew many modern technologies and conveniences.

Moreover, most of the people on those farms are children, with Amish parents having, on average, six to eight children.

So by the numbers, the people most likely to die on a farm in the county are Amish children.