Where the numbers come from
All figures come from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS): the 2022 Census of Agriculture, published in February 2024, and the 2017 Census of Agriculture for the change columns. Farm Census reads the two bulk data files NASS publishes at www.nass.usda.gov/datasets/ (qs.census2022.txt.gz and qs.census2017.txt.gz) and keeps the county, state and national rows. Nothing is estimated, modelled or filled in on this site. Data retrieved 2026-10-28.
What counts as a farm
The census counts 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. A county's "farms" are the operations headquartered there, and its acres are the land those operations farm.
Withheld figures: (D) and (Z)
When a county figure would let someone work out the data of an individual farm, NASS publishes "(D)" instead of a number. A "(Z)" means less than half of the unit shown. Farm Census never guesses these values: a withheld item is named as withheld, it is left out of every county ranking, and a county is not given a page if one of its core figures (farms, land in farms, average and median size, sales, producers, average age, land area, cropland) is withheld. For that reason 50 of 3,079 county-level areas are left out. Withheld amounts are still inside the state and national totals, which is why the counties on a ranking never add up to the national figure.
How ranks are worded
"Ranks fourth" always means fourth among the counties with a published figure for that item, never among all counties. "Within Iowa, no other county with a published figure has more" is the same rule applied inside one state, used only for states where at least ten counties publish the item. Ranks for shares and averages use a minimum size so that tiny counties do not crowd the extremes:
- average age and the shares of young, older and women producers: counties with at least 500 producers;
- average and median farm size: at least 100 farms;
- irrigated share and harvested share of farmland: at least 50,000 acres in farms;
- crop share of sales: at least $50 million of farm sales;
- change in farm numbers and average size: at least 500 farms in 2017; change in land in farms: at least 100,000 acres in 2017; in sales: at least $100 million in 2017; in harvested cropland: 50,000 acres; in irrigated land: 20,000 acres;
- change for a single crop or animal: only the 100 counties with the largest figure in 2017 that also publish a 2022 figure.
Which counties have their own page
Every county appears in its state's table and in the top-counties explorer. A county gets its own profile when it has at least three distinct strong facts: a top-ten place nationally for a crop, an animal, a sales group or total sales; first place in its state for one of them; a top-ten or bottom-ten place for one of the shares and averages above or for one of the changes since 2017; or one of the five largest gains or losses for a single crop or animal among its leading counties. Facts about the same subject (hog numbers and hog sales, for example) count once. A county that leads the country for any crop, animal or sales group also gets a profile. In both cases the county must have at least 50 farms. In all, 288 counties meet that bar.
The measures
- Land in farms: in the census's words, land used "for crops, pasture, or grazing", together with woodland and wasteland that is part of a farm operation. It includes land rented from others as well as owned land. The cropland, pastureland and woodland figures overlap, so their shares of land in farms can add up to more than 100%.
- Share of land in farms: land in farms divided by the county's total land area, as published by NASS.
- Harvested cropland and crop acres: acres harvested in 2022. Land from which two or more crops were harvested is counted once in harvested cropland, but double-cropped acres count for each crop, so crop acres can add up to more than harvested cropland. Orchard land covers fruit trees, citrus and other groves, vineyards and nut trees, bearing and non-bearing; almonds, apples, citrus, pecans and grapes are likewise bearing and non-bearing acres; berries are acres grown; vegetables are harvested in the open and include potatoes and sweet potatoes.
- Animals: inventories are measured as of December 31, 2022; broilers are shown as birds sold during the year. Heifers that have not calved are counted with other cattle, not with milk or beef cows.
- Farm sales: the market value of agricultural products sold, which the census defines as "the gross market value before taxes and production expenses of all agricultural products sold or removed from the place in 2022, regardless of who received the payment". It does not include federal farm program payments or income from farm-related services. It is split into 16 product groups that add up to the total. Values are in current dollars; the change from 2017 is not adjusted for inflation.
- Producers: people involved in making decisions for the farm operation. Detailed characteristics such as age were collected for up to four producers per farm. USDA notes that demographic data for 2022 are not fully comparable with 2017 because of terminology and definition changes, so this site does not compare producer ages or counts between the two censuses. Ages and the share of women are county totals; the site shows no data about any individual.
- Sales mix match: the similarity of two counties' shares of sales across the 16 product groups, measured as the cosine of the two share vectors (100% means an identical mix). Only counties with at least $20 million in sales are compared.
Boundaries and names
Counties follow the census geography of each year. Alaska is published as five census areas rather than boroughs, and some Virginia independent cities are published separately. A county with no matching 2017 area has no change column.
Licence and credit
Census of Agriculture data are a work of the US federal government and in the public domain. Credit: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2022 and 2017 Census of Agriculture. Farm Census is an independent site and is not endorsed by USDA.