(Selected research findings from FY 25)
The U.S. rural population continues to grow because of net migration, but working-age populations in rural counties are shrinking
Webinar: Rural America at a Glance, 2024 Edition
Rural America at a Glance is an annual USDA, Economic Research Service report that highlights recent social and economic conditions in rural areas of the United States. This edition focuses on the age structure of the rural population and the implications of age-related demographic change through the lens of migration, labor market participation, poverty, childcare and eldercare, and broadband. The aging of the population affects rural areas, where residents tend to be older on average than their urban counterparts. Whether due to retirees migrating to rural destinations or the aging of the population in place, recent growth in older age cohorts has implications for rural communities, such as the local labor supply and the demands for goods and services.
Nonfamily farms tend to have lower household debt than family farm counterparts
Roughly 2 percent of the 2 million U.S. farms between 2018 and 2022 were classified as nonfamily farms, which are operations in which no producer, producer’s household, or extended family owns at least 50 percent of the operation. The report examined this rarely studied group and finds that 70 percent of nonfamily farms are considered small, with less than $350,000 in gross cash farm income. Nonfamily farms, on average, represent 13.4 percent of U.S. agricultural value of production, with much of that production coming from the 17 percent of nonfamily farms considered large-scale. On average, small and large-scale nonfamily farms owned and operated more acres than similarly sized family farms.