Ag Facts

Less than one-fourth of one percent of the world's agricultural population lives and works in the U.S., while over 54 percent of the world's agricultural population lives and works in China and India, the two largest countries in the world.

According to FAO data,in 2000, China, with its population of 1.3 billion, had an agricultural population of 854 million people. India's agricultural population totaled 546 million of its slightly more than 1 billion inhabitants.

SOURCE: Daryll E. Ray, University of Tennessee Agricultural Policy Analysis, http://www.agpolicy.org

25.8 million jobs, or about 15.6 percent of total U.S. employment in 2000 came from farming and its related industries, the latest year for which detailed industry-level data are available. More than one-quarter of farm and farm-related employment came from farm production and its closely related industries, which provide agricultural services and inputs, and process and market agricultural goods.

SOURCE: Bureau of Economic Analysis www.ers.usda.gov/Data/FarmandRelatedEmployment