Agricultural Census for England, Wales and Scotland (Eurostat)
Download/Access
Agricultural census data for England, Scotland and Wales is supplied to Eurostat by the respective government agencies. The annual data is summarised from their respective Agricultural Surveys at national level or NUTS 2 scale (England 44 areas; Wales 2 areas; Scotland 4 areas). Although the spatial resolution of the data is coarse, it is designed to enable comparisons between countries and regions.
Eurostat also contains a large number of other datasets (both agricultural and non-agricultural) at varying spatial scales that could be useful for modelling or analysis, particularly when comparing at regional or country scale. The agricultural data include agricultural yields and prices, farm structure, economic accounts and agri-environmental indicators. Some datasets begin from 1950s, although many are more recent.
Eurostat also contains a large number of other datasets (both agricultural and non-agricultural) at varying spatial scales that could be useful for modelling or analysis, particularly when comparing at regional or country scale. The agricultural data include agricultural yields and prices, farm structure, economic accounts and agri-environmental indicators. Some datasets begin from 1950s, although many are more recent.
Format
Tabulated data
Spatial information
Study area
Spatial representation type
Tabular (text)
Temporal information
Temporal extent
… to …
Provenance & quality
Annual census of agricultural and horticultural activities for England, Scotland and Wales is conducted on commercial holdings, defined as holdings of more than 5 ha agricultural land, 1 ha orchards, 0.5 ha vegetables or 0.1 ha of protected crops and ornamentals, or more than 10 cows, 50 pigs, 20 sheep, 20 goats or 1000 poultry. Note that these thresholds have only been in place since 2010. Each farmer declares the agricultural activity on the land via a postal questionnaire. Since the late 1990s the agricultural census in England and Wales has been conducted as a sample survey in which data is only sought from a proportion of holdings in each year, as low as 30% of commercial holdings in some years (approx. 30,000 holdings). Since 2007, cattle numbers have been taken from the Cattle Tracing Scheme. Data for non-surveyed farms are interpolated from the most recent data for those farms using the trends on comparable farms.