Agriculture–Population Linkage Data

2006 Census of Agriculture

Canada's farm population continued its long-term decline between 2001 and 2006 and, like the population as a whole, got older. The farm population fell 6.2% to 684,260.

Between 2001 and 2006, the number of farm families living on unincorporated farms declined 9.5% to 175,810. The median total income for farm families on unincorporated farms in 2005 was $56,412, compared to $63,846 received by census families in the general population.

In 2006, 10.0% of farm operators had university degrees, that is, bachelor level and above, up from 8.7% in 2001. This was below the 21.8% for the total labour force. About 12.3% of female operators had a university degree, compared with 9.1% of their male counterparts.

Read the December 2, 2008 edition of The Daily for concise analytical text on national and provincial trends.