Significant Figures

CC BY-ND Hardworking American farmers keep the world fed and clothed. But the farming labor force has a problem: It’s aging rapidly. The average American farmer is 57 and a half years old, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s up sharply from 1978, when the figure was just a smidge over 50. As researchers who study well-being in rural areas, we wanted to understand this trend and its implications. So we dug into the data. Amber waves of graying We found that the average age of farmers was fairly consistent across the country, even though the general population’s age varies quite a bit from place to place. For example, the average Maine farmer is just a few months older than the average farmer in Utah, even though the average Maine resident is more than a decade older than the average Utahn. To be fair, we did find some local differe...