Background

Errata: On December 3, 2024, ERS revised Table01a (Statistics on the Agricultural Resource Management Survey, 1996–2023) in the Background page of the Farm Household Income and Characteristics data product to correct the reported coefficient of variation for 1996 and 1998 farm household income and its respective on-farm and off-farm sub-components. No other values in the table were affected.

Data on farm household income and characteristics come from USDA’s annual Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). Changes in survey methodology, sampling, or response rates can influence estimates derived from survey data.

In 2023, the most recent survey year, the number of farm and family farm records used to calculate farm household statistics was 14,705 and 13,844, respectively. Farm and family farm records are down compared with 2022.

Changes Between 2012 and Earlier Years

Beginning in 2012, two major changes affected how ARMS data are collected.

  • ARMS began using a single Costs and Return Report survey instrument that goes to all States and is administered by mail, web, and face-to-face interviews.
  • The all-mail "core" version of ARMS Phase III, introduced in 2003, was discontinued.

Together, these survey design changes make farm household statistics from 2012 onward difficult to compare to earlier surveys. These changes can also affect the precision of estimates.

The coefficient of variation (which measures the size of the standard error as a percent of the estimated mean) for 2023 is consistent with previous years. The coefficient of variation for the mean of total household income has ranged from a low of 1.9 percent in 2008 and 2010 to as high as 5.6 percent in 2019; the variation in mean off-farm income moved similarly, at 1.6 percent in 2010 and 6.8 percent in 2019. The coefficient of variation of the farm income component of household income was generally higher, with a low of 3.8 percent in 2014 and a high of 26.6 percent in 2002, consistent with greater riskiness and variation overall in farm sector income. See more statistics on the ARMS from recent years.

See more documentation for the Agricultural Resource Management Survey.