Farm families ARE different, Stats Can finds

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

In a report released today, the federal fact-finding bureau makes several observations about the country’s farm population:

• It counts for only 2.2 per cent of all Canadians in 2006 compared to 31.7 per cent of the country’s population in 1931.
• In 2006, seniors (65-plus) made up 11.2 per cent of the country’s farm population of 684,260.
• The proportion of immigrants fell to 6.9 per cent of the total farm population compared to 8.5 per cent in 1971. From 1971 to 2006 the share of immigrants in Canada’s general population, by way of contrast, increased to nearly 20 per cent from 15 per cent.
• Canadian immigrants’ top three countries of origin haven’t changed since 2001: the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States. In 2006 Ontario had the largest share of the immigrant farm population – more than one third. The top places of birth were the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany.
• Seventy per cent of the country’s farm population speaks English while the remainder speak French (14.3 per cent) or another language (15.6 per cent).
• More than a quarter of fruit and tree nut farm operators are immigrants and more than one fifth of greenhouse, nursery and floriculture farmers are immigrants. Grain and oilseed farms have the lowest proportion of immigrant operators at 5.1 per cent.
• Farm families are getting smaller. The average farm family had 3.1 members in 2006 compared to 4.3 in 1971. The average family size in the general population in 2006 was 2.9.
• With a median income of $56,412 in 2005, farm families earn considerably less than the general population median family income of $63,846. BF