2022 Census of Agriculture Shows Significant Shift in U.S. Ag Industry

By Denise Rivette

According to the recently released 2022 Census of Agriculture, the number of farms and agricultural land area in the United States have declined, falling below 2 million for the first time since before the Civil War. A farm is defined as “an establishment that produced or sold or would have sold in normal conditions at least $1,000 in agricultural production in a year.”

There were 1,900,487 farms in 2022, representing a 7% decrease from 2017. The total land in farming and ranching decreased by 2.2% to 880 million acres. Despite these overall declines, the average farm size increased by 5% to 463 acres per operation. These trends may signal a significant shift in the United States farming industry.