Looking for recent demographic data and current information on farming and the economics of farming? Try these easy to use State Fact Sheets from the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). You don’t have to wait until the release of the next Census of Agriculture for timely data. Much of the data is very current as the ERS utilizes a variety of government data sources. The Fact Sheet includes information on:
- Population, income, education, and employment
- Average size of farms
- Farm ownership structure
- Average age of the principal operator
- Major commodities
- Exports
- Financial characteristics of farm operations.
A few noteworthy facts about this source:
- Historical data is included for much of the data
- County level data is readily available with a simply click of the mouse
- Data is not limited to rural or agriculture as all the data is available for every state and county
- County data includes the rural-urban continuum codes
- County data can be easily sorted to enable easy ranking of counties on a variety of variables
- Data is downloadable
A sample of the county-level population data for Wisconsin, including historical data and rural-urban continuum codes provides an indication of the type of good timely information available on this site.
