The survey results provide a broad overview of U.S. farms and ranches.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) has released the results of the 2022 Census of Agriculture. It covers more than 6 million data points down to counties and provides a broad overview of the nation’s farms and ranches. level. Data collected directly from producers shows that the total number of U.S. farms continues to decline, but new and novice producers (any farm in operation for less than 10 years) and young producers (under the law ) has also been shown to be increasing. 35 years old).
The complete Agricultural Census report and publication dates for additional Agricultural Census data products are available at nass.usda.gov/AgCensus. Agricultural census data can also be accessed through NASS’s online database, Quick Stats.
NASS Administrator Hubert Hamer expressed his satisfaction in providing up-to-date agricultural census data to all stakeholders in U.S. agriculture, especially the producers who participated in the survey. He emphasized that census data, which is updated every five years, helps identify trends and changes in the industry over time and helps growers operate their businesses. While Hamer acknowledged changes in U.S. agriculture, he noted that the data is largely consistent with the previous Census of Agriculture and includes new data on topics such as hemp, precision agriculture and internet access.
Key insights from agricultural census data include:
- The number of farms and ranches decreased by 7% from 2017 to a total of 1.9 million, with an average area of 463 acres (up 5%) and 880 million acres of farmland (down 2%), more than all land in the United States. Accounting for 39%.
- Family farms account for 95% of all U.S. farms and control 84% of the agricultural land.
- U.S. farms and ranches produced $543 billion in agricultural products, up from $389 billion in 2017, and had net cash income of $152 billion after production costs of $424 billion. Average farm income rose to $79,790, with 43% of farms reporting positive farm net cash income in 2022.
- Internet access on farms continues to grow, reaching 79% in 2022, up from 75% in 2017.
- The use of renewable energy systems on farms and ranches has increased by 15%, with the majority (76%) using solar panels.
- Direct-to-consumer sales by 116,617 farms reached $3.3 billion, an increase of 16% from 2017.
- Farms with sales of $1 million or more accounted for 6% of U.S. farms, 31% of agricultural land, and more than three-quarters of all agricultural sales. Farms with sales of less than $50,000 accounted for 74% of farms, 25% of agricultural land, and 2% of sales.
- Most of the agricultural land was used for oilseed and grain production (32%) and beef cattle production (40%).
- The average age of all farmers increased slightly by 0.6 years from 2017 to 58.1 years, and the average age of new farmers was 47.1 years old.
- Producers under the age of 35 make up 9% of all producers, and farms managed by younger producers tend to have larger acres and sales.
- Women producers account for 36% of all producers and 58% of all farms have at least one female decision maker.
- The response rate for the 2022 Agriculture Census was 61%, with more than 40% of responses submitted online.
The Agricultural Census was first conducted in 1840 and has been administered by USDA NASS since 1997, and remains the most comprehensive source of agricultural data for every state and county in the United States.
