Farms & farm workers in the USA 1910-2000

US farms & farm workers 1910-2000

This line graph shows the number of farms and farm workers in the USA during the period 1910-2000.

Throughout the period, as we’d expect, the number of workers was always greater than the number of farms, but there was a significant closing of the gap as the century progressed. In 1910 there were over 6M farms but more than double this number of farm workers. The number of farms slightly increased over the next 20 years, whereas the number of workers fell slightly. Over the next 40 years, to 1970, the number of farms declined gradually by about a half but the number of workers plummeted dramatically from over 12M to just over 4M. After 1970, the numbers of both farms and farm workers declined steadily.

Over the whole period, the number of farms fell from over 6M to just over 2M. The decline in the number of workers was more rapid, from over 13M to just 3M.

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