Census of Agriculture

Description

The Census of Agriculture is a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. Even small plots of land - whether rural or urban - growing fruit, vegetables or some food animals count if $1,000 or more of such products were raised and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the Census year. The Census of Agriculture, taken only once every five years, looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures.

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Detailed Methodology

Sample

The purpose of a census is to enumerate all objects with a defined characteristic. For the census of agriculture, that goal is to account for "any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year." To do this, NASS creates a Census Mail List (CML) of agricultural operations that potentially meet the farm definition, collects agricultural information from those operations, reviews the data, corrects or completes the requested information, and combines the data to provide information on the characteristics of farm operations and farm producers at the national, State, and county levels. There are approximately 3 million records on the CML.

Method of data collection

Survey (self- or interviewer-administered)

Frequency of data collection

Every five years

Reference date

Last year/last 12 months

Number of cases

Varies by year, approximately 1.1 million cases

Number of variables

Varies by year, approximately 2,000 variables