The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will release the 2017 Census of Agriculture results on Thursday, April 11, at noon ET. The full Census report will include millions of data points, including number of farms, land in farms, total value of production, demographics, and more at the national, state, and county levels.
The report, along with a number of related publications, video presentations, and searchable data query interfaces, will be available on the NASS website at www.nass.usda.gov. Available now in preparation for data release are three videos featuring NASS subject matter experts explaining the importance of the Census, what’s new in this Census, and how to find Census data.
“We are excited to share the new Census of Agriculture data next week,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. “The Census data will help inform decisions about ag education, research, farm programs, rural development, and much more over the next several years. Conducting the Census is part of USDA’s commitment to you.”
This Census report will include new information on military service, food marketing practices, and on-farm decision-making. These additions help better capture the roles and contributions of beginning farmers, women farmers, and others involved in running a farm enterprise. Data from this census as well as previous ones are easily searchable on the new online Census Data Query Tool. To address questions about the 2017 Census of Agriculture data, NASS will host a live Twitter (@usda_nass) Ask the Census Experts Stat Chat on Friday, April 12, at 1:00pm ET.
At the same time that the 2017 Census of Agriculture data is released for the 50 states, NASS is collecting Census data in the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The agency is also in the last few weeks of data collection for two Census of Agriculture Special Studies – the 2018 Census of Aquaculture and the 2018 Irrigation and Water Management Survey. These and other products, such as state, county, and congressional district profiles, will be released throughout the year.
The first Census of Agriculture was conducted in 1840 in conjunction with the decennial Census. After 1920, it was conducted every four to five years. By 1982, it was regularly conducted once every five years as it still is today, mailed to every known farm and ranch in the United States.
NASS is the federal statistical agency responsible for producing official data about U.S. agriculture and is committed to providing timely, accurate and useful statistics in service to U.S. agriculture.
