Structural changes continue in agriculture in Finland. According to the Information Service of Tike, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the number of people employed in agriculture has fallen by one third from 2000. At the same time, the number of farms and horticultural enterprises has fallen by one fifth.

A total of 125,300 people were employed in agricultural work in 2010. The change does not directly suggest a decrease in the amount of work on farms. The time spent on agricultural work only fell by 13%. The amount of work was greatest in dairy farms.

“A person running a dairy farm spent an average of 255 days a year on farm work, which is almost twice as much as an average person employed in agriculture did,” says project researcher Pasi Mattila from Tike.

In fact, the share of agriculture and gardening of the total amount of work in the sector is highest in areas dominated by cattle keeping. Grain farms take up an average of one third of the working time of people working on them.

The average age of farmers is now three years higher than in 2000

The average age of farmers in Finland is 51 years, which is three years more than in 2000. The youngest farmers are running a pig farm. The average age of farmers running a dairy farm is less than 50 years.

“Changes of generation are not carried out frequently on farms at the moment. Ten per cent of the farms have carried out a change of generation during the past five years,” Mattila says.

A farm owner in Finland has typically had the farm in his/her ownership for slightly over 20 years

One third of the people employed in agriculture are women. They are most likely to be employed on horse farms. Gardening is another area where there are many female employees. Most women are employed on grain farms.

Approximately half of the labour force on farms and in horticultural enterprises has completed an appropriate education. Agricultural qualifications are most common among livestock farmers. Sheep, goat and horse farms are an exception, however, as they are often originally set up as a hobby, so the people running them have not necessarily completed any qualifications for employment in the field.

Number of farms decreased by a half in 20 years

The number of farms and horticultural enterprises has decreased by one fifth to 63,874 in ten years. The number of farms has decreased by a half from 1990. Only one third of the farms are livestock farms; ten years ago, half of all farms still reported livestock as their principal line of production.

Some of the earlier livestock farms have been closed down while some now focus on crop farming, which shows in an increase in the share of crop farms. The role of horse husbandry has become more prominent. The share of farms with horse husbandry as their principal line of production has increased slightly, being almost one third higher for all farms than in 2000.

Read more about the statistics

The data was derived from the Agricultural Census 2010 survey conducted by Tike. The results of the survey will be published in five parts at www.maataloustilastot.fi. Data on labour force in agriculture will be published first. The next results, to be published on 29 June 2011, will cover secondary business activities on farms. Data for the Agricultural Census were collected from all Finnish farms and horticultural enterprises in 2010 and 2011.

Further information

Tike, Statistical Services
Project Researcher Pasi Mattila
tel. +358 20 77 21 300
firstname.surname@mmmtike.fi