Census of Agriculture

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. Responsibility for the Census of Agriculture was transferred from the U.S. Census Bureau to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) in 1997.

More Information

• The State Library of Iowa and many federal depository libraries have copies of historical agriculture census data 
• More recent census data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service: https://www.nass.usda.gov/AgCensus/