From 2000 onwards, the total area of land in U.S. farms has decreased annually, aside from a small increase in 2012. Over the time period displayed, the total farmland area has decreased by over 66 million acres, reaching a total of 876.5 million acres as of 2024. Farming in the U.S. Not only has the land for farming been decreasing in the U.S., but so has the total number of farms. From 2000 to 2021, the number of farms in the U.S. decreased from about 2.17 million farms in 2000 to just under 1.9 million in 2023. Texas has more than double the number of farms compared to other U.S. states, with 231,000 farms in 2023. U.S. agricultural exports The U.S. is known for agriculture production and is the leading exporter of agricultural products worldwide. The total U.S. agricultural exports were valued at over 178 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Over 4.8 billion dollars’ worth of agricultural exports came from fresh or processed vegetables in 2022.

In 2025, the average value of U.S. farm real estate was 4,350 U.S. dollars per acre. Compared to one decade earlier, the value has increased by 1,350 U.S. dollars. Generally, the value of U.S. farm real estate has had an upward trend since 1970. U.S. farms The number of farms in the United States has conversely been decreasing each year, reaching about 1.8 million farms as of 2024. Texas has more farms out of any other U.S. state by far, with about 230,000 farms as of 2024. Missouri and Iowa had the second and third most farms, though neither state exceeded 100,000 farms. Agricultural trade Agricultural products encompass any products from agricultural origin that are meant for human consumption or animal feed. Agricultural products can include livestock products or crops. In 2024, the U.S. exported about 170.5 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of agricultural goods worldwide, increasing from the previous several years. Mexico is a key destination for U.S. agricultural products and imported just over 28 billion dollars’ worth in 2023, more than Europe and Eurasia combined.

Actual value and historical data chart for United States Agricultural Land Percent Of Land Area

The average size of farms in the United States has seen a steady increase over the last decade. In 2024, the average farm size reached 466 acres, up from 418 acres in 2007. Between 2006 and 2007 there was a sudden drop in average farm size, but in recent years it has recovered and once again reached the same levels as its peak in 2006. Agriculture in the United States In 2023, there were about 1.9 million farms in the United States, down from 2.2 million in 2007. It appears that as average farm size has increased, the number of individual farms in the United States has decreased. Texas is home to the highest number of farms of any U.S. state, with 231,000 farms as of 2023. Major crops in the United States The United States produces a wide variety of crops. Though the production volumes of some major crops, such as wheat, have fluctuated considerably since 2000, the production of vegetables for processing has been on the rise in recent years. Grapes, apples, and oranges are the most produced fruits in the United States, with the majority of grapes being grown in California.

This EnviroAtlas dataset shows the acres of land enrolled in the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The CRP is administered by the Farm Service Agency; farmers in the program receive annual payments and establishment cost share to remove environmentally sensitive land from crop production and instead plant perennial species that provide environmental benefits. This dataset was produced by the USDA to support research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas. EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas) allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the contiguous United States. The dataset is available as downloadable data (https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas) or as an EnviroAtlas map service. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this dataset can be found in its associated EnviroAtlas Fact Sheet (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/enviroatlas-fact-sheets).

The total area of cropland in the United States has not changed significantly over the last several years, with only a slight decrease from ***** million acres in 2012 to around ***** million acres in 2018. The largest decrease in area during that time period occurred between 2014 and 2015. Crop Diversity in the United States A significant portion of the United States economy is rooted in agriculture. As a large country with a diverse and varied climate, the United States is perfectly suited to producing a huge variety of crops. For instance, much of the tobacco produced in the United States originates from North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia. However, when it comes to fresh vegetables, California had by far the highest production volume of any U.S. state as of 2018. Facts about U.S. Farms As the largest state in the continental United States, Texas also has the highest number of farms of any U.S. state, at *** thousand in 2018. Missouri came in second place at ** thousand farms in that year. Operating and maintaining a farm in the United States is labor intensive, with many different costs and expenses that must be considered in order to keep the farm profitable. As of 2017, around **** percent of total farm production expenditure was attributed to animal feed.

United States US: Agricultural Land: % of Land Area data was reported at 44.369 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 44.588 % for 2014. United States US: Agricultural Land: % of Land Area data is updated yearly, averaging 46.615 % from Dec 1961 (Median) to 2015, with 55 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 48.860 % in 1961 and a record low of 44.239 % in 2011. United States US: Agricultural Land: % of Land Area data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Agricultural land refers to the share of land area that is arable, under permanent crops, and under permanent pastures. Arable land includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is excluded. Land under permanent crops is land cultivated with crops that occupy the land for long periods and need not be replanted after each harvest, such as cocoa, coffee, and rubber. This category includes land under flowering shrubs, fruit trees, nut trees, and vines, but excludes land under trees grown for wood or timber. Permanent pasture is land used for five or more years for forage, including natural and cultivated crops.; ; Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.; Weighted average;

This coverage contains estimates of land in agricultural production in counties in the conterminous United States as reported in the 1987 Census of Agriculture (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1989a). Land in agriculture data are reported as either a number (for example, number of Farms), acres, or as a percentage of county area. Land in agriculture estimates were generated from surveys of all farms where $1,000 or more of agricultural products were sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year. Most of the attributes summarized represent 1987 data, but some information for the 1982 Census of Agriculture also was included. The polygons representing county boundaries in the conterminous United States, as well as lakes, estuaries, and other nonland-area features were derived from the Digital Line Graph (DLG) files representing the 1:2,000,000-scale map in the National Atlas of the United States (1970). Agricultural land Census of Agriculture Counties United States

The Census of Agriculture highlight key agricultural metrics for US states and counties. Percentage metrics included were calculated as follows: Percent of harvested cropland in cover crops = (cover crops acres)/((harvested cropland)+(failed crops)-(alfalfa))Percent of total tilled cropland using no-till = (no-till acreage)/(no till + reduced till + conventional till)Percent of tilled cropland using conservation tillage = (no till + reduced till acreage)/(no till + reduced till + conventional till)Percent of agricultural land in conservation easement = (conservation easement acres that excludes CRP)/((land in farms) – (CRP WRP FWP CREP acres))Percent of agricultural land in Conservation Reserve Program = (Conservation Reserve Program acres / cropland acres + Conservation Reserve Program acres ))*100Note, that counties for the Census of Agriculture are different than standard US Census Bureau counties; for example, cities in Virginia such as Harrisonburg, VA are rolled into the respective county and counties in Alaska are rolled into regions with their own district/region FIPS codes, etc. Also note, some counties have no data as one or more of the input variables included suppression.These data have been made publicly available from an authoritative source other than this Atlas and data should be obtained directly from that source for any re-use. See the original metadata from the authoritative source for more information about these data and use limitations. The authoritative source of these data can be found at the following location: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2017/Online_Resources/Ag_Census_Web_Maps/Data_download/index.php

State fact sheets provide information on population, income, education, employment, federal funds, organic agriculture, farm characteristics, farm financial indicators, top commodities, and exports, for each State in the United States. Links to county-level data are included when available.This record was taken from the USDA Enterprise Data Inventory that feeds into the https://data.gov catalog. Data for this record includes the following resources: Query tool For complete information, please visit https://data.gov.

In 2023, the area of organic agricultural land in North America amounted to about **** million hectares. From 2014 to 2020, there had been constant growth in organic agriculture land in North America before decreasing in 2021.

This EnviroAtlas data set depicts estimates for mean cash rent paid for land by farmers, sorted by county for irrigated cropland, non-irrigated cropland, and pasture by for most of the conterminous US. This data comes from national surveys which includes approximately 240,000 farms and applies to all crops. According to the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), these surveys do not include land rented for a share of the crop, on a fee per head, per pound of gain, by animal unit month (AUM), rented free of charge, or land that includes buildings such as barns. For each land use category with positive acres, respondents are given the option of reporting rent per acre or total dollars paid. This dataset was produced by the US EPA to support research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas. EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas) allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the contiguous United States. The dataset is available as downloadable data (https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas) or as an EnviroAtlas map service. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this dataset can be found in its associated EnviroAtlas Fact Sheet (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/enviroatlas-fact-sheets).

The Census of Agriculture provides a detailed picture every five years of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. Conducted by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, the 2012 Census of Agriculture collected more than six million data items directly from farmers. The Ag Census Web Maps application makes this information available at the county level through a few clicks. The maps and accompanying data help users visualize, download, and analyze Census of Agriculture data in a geospatial context. Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: Ag Census Web Maps. File Name: Web Page, url: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2012/Online_Resources/Ag_Census_Web_Maps/Overview/index.php/ The interactive map application assembles maps and statistics from the 2012 Census of Agriculture in five broad categories:

Crops and Plants – Data on harvested acreage for major field crops, hay, and other forage crops, as well as acreage data for vegetables, fruits, tree nuts, and berries. Economics – Data on agriculture sales, farm income, government payments from conservation and farm programs, amounts received from loans, a broad range of production expenses, and value of buildings and equipment. Farms – Information on farm size, ownership, and Internet access, as well as data on total land in farms, land use, irrigation, fertilized cropland, and enrollment in crop insurance programs. Livestock and Animals – Statistics on cattle and calves, cows and heifers, milk cows, and other cattle, as well as hogs, sheep, goats, horses, and broilers. Operators – Statistics on hired farm labor, tenure, land rented or leased, primary occupation of farm operator, and demographic characteristics such as age, sex, race/ethnicity, and residence location.

The Ag Census Web Maps application allows you to:

Select a map to display from a the above five general categories and associated subcategories. Zoom and pan to a specific area; use the inset buttons to center the map on the continental United States; zoom to a specific state; and show the state mask to fade areas surrounding the state. Create and print maps showing the variation in a single data item across the United States (for example, average value of agricultural products sold per farm). Select a county and view and download the county’s data for a general category. Download the U.S. county-level dataset of mapped values for all categories in Microsoft ® Excel format.

Texas was by far the leading U.S. state in terms of total number of farms, with about 231 thousand farms by the end of 2024. Iowa was ranked second, among the leading ten states, with 86.7 thousand farms as of 2023. Farms classification In the United States farms are classified based on the farm income and government payments into six sales classes. According to the USDA, about half of all farms in the U.S. were classified in the 1,000 to 9,999 U.S. dollars sales class in 2023. Farming sector in the U.S. The total number of farms in the United States has decreased steadily since 2007. As of 2022, there were about 1.89 million farms in the U.S., down slightly from 1.9 million in the previous year. Contrastingly, the average farm acreage in the United States has increased in the past few years. The number of employees, including both part-time and full-time workers, in this sector was over 965 thousand as of 2019.

This metadata record describes a computed ratio of county acres of farmland reported in agricultural conservation programs to the total acres of farmland reported for the county. Acres in conservation programs are for the 2012 time period, and reported by survey from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farm Field Survey. Acres of total farmland were used from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2012 Census of Agriculture. The ratio is intended to provide an indication of the intensity of agricultural management practices.

The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities.

Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office.

The following dataset from Harvard Forest (HFR) contains farmland acres (total) measurements in acre units and were aggregated to a yearly timescale.

This data collection contains information on the average monetary value per acre of farm lands and buildings for each county in the United States in the period 1850-1959.

The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) contains farmland acres (total) measurements in acre units and were aggregated to a yearly timescale.

Note: Updates to this data product are discontinued. ERS collected data from USDA-accredited State and private certification groups to calculate the extent of certified organic farmland acreage and livestock in the United States. These are presented in tables showing the change in U.S. organic acreage and livestock numbers from 1992 to 2011 (see the National tables section). Data for 1997 and 2000-11 are presented by State and commodity (see the State tables section).This record was taken from the USDA Enterprise Data Inventory that feeds into the https://data.gov catalog. Data for this record includes the following resources: Web page with links to Excel files For complete information, please visit https://data.gov.

The Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation (MALPF), housed within the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA), protects agricultural lands through the use of perpetual easements. This program was created by the Maryland General Assembly in 1977, is governed by the Agricultural Article, Sections 2-501 through 2-519 of the Annotated Code of Maryland. MALPF’s primary purpose is to preserve productive agricultural land and woodland to provide for the continuing production of food and fiber for the citizens of Maryland. This is accomplished by landowners voluntarily applying to sell an easement on their property through a competitive State-wide application process. MALPF easement boundaries are estimated based on property descriptions provided by MDA, aligned to iMap parcel polygons and supplemented with MdProperty View data to facilitate use with vectorized parcel data. This GIS dataset is intended for general guidance and use only and is not designed as a substitute for legal survey. The coordinates displayed do not represent legal parcel corners and/or boundaries and they cannot be used for establishment of or in lieu of legal land survey boundaries. New fields have been added since the previous update to facilitate the integration of this dataset with the Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US). Attributes for these fields, which are identified below as PAD-US fields, are not available for all data collected historically. The Maryland Department of Planning will continue to populate these new fields as updates become available. For a full description of the contents of the PAD-US fields, see https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/science-analytics-and-synthesis/gap/pad-us-data-manual. Attributes within this dataset include: Source Protected Area ID (PAD-US field): MALPF easement numberSettled Acres: Settlement acreage Settled Date: Settlement date, including month date and year County: County in which protected land is located Weblink: Link to more information about the protection program Category (PAD-US field): PAD-US classification for the protection mechanism associated with the protected property Owner Type (PAD-US field): General land owner type of the fee property interest, standardized for the US Owner Name (PAD-US field): Owner of the fee interest of the property, standardized for the nation Local Owner (PAD-US field): The actual name of the owner of the fee interest Easement Holder Type (PAD-US field): Where the ‘Category’ of protection code (above) is listed as “Easement”, this field specifies the type of holder of the easement. Easement Holder (PAD-US field): Where the ‘Category’ of protection code (above) is listed as “Easement”, this field indicates the actual name of the holder of the conservation easement. Unit Name (PAD-US field): The name of the land management unit or protected area State (PAD-US field): Name of state in which the protected land is located Aggregator Source (PAD-US field): Organization credited with data aggregation. Attributed in the format 'organization name_filename YearPublished.filetype'GIS Source (PAD-US field): The original source of GIS spatial and attribute information the aggregator obtained where availableGIS Source Date (PAD-US field): The date (yyyy/mm/dd) GIS data was obtained by the data source for aggregation GIS Acres (PAD-US field): Acres calculated for each polygon in NAD83 Meters. The GIS Acres may differ from the Settled Acres, particularly in cases where easement boundaries are estimated based on parcel polygon boundaries. Date of Protection (PAD-US field): The year (yyyy) the property was legally protected via fee acquisition or enactment of a conservation easement Public Access (PAD-US field):Accessibility of the property to the public, standardized