The Average Farmer Is Now 58 Years Old. If That's You, Read This Before You Sell a Single Acre
In October 2022, CBS News visited a vegetable farm off Airport Boulevard in Santa Rosa, California. Lee James had just turned 70. Her brother Wayne was 66. Together they had farmed for more than 40 years, and they had no children to hand the farm to.
"I'm tired of seven days a week," Lee told the reporter.
That one sentence explains the average age of farmers better than any census table. In the United States, the average farmer is 58.1 years old (2022 Census of Agriculture). In Japan, the average core farm worker is 67.7. Across the European Union, the average farmer is 57. More than a third of farmers in the US and England are now 65 or older, and many have no written plan for what comes next.
What does it mean for you? It means a huge share of farmland is likely to change hands in the next 20 years. Some of it will be sold in a hurry, by tired people, for less than it could have earned them.
This article is about making sure that isn't you.
The short answer: The average age of farmers is 58.1 in the United States (2022), 67.7 for Japan's core farm workers (2025), 57 in the European Union (2020 data), 56.0 in Canada (2021) and 56 in Australia (2015-16). In England, 36.1% of principal farmers are 65 or older (2026). In Malaysia, 45.6% of farm operators are 60 or older (Agriculture Census 2024). Farmers are far older than the average worker, and many have no written succession plan. If you are one of them, selling is not your only exit. Your land, your know-how and your stories can earn a second income from visitors while you keep the farm. |
What Is the Average Age of Farmers? Country by Country
Here is the comparison almost nobody shows you honestly. Every country counts "farmers" a little differently, so the table below tells you exactly who is being counted and when.
Country | Average age | Who is counted | Year | The number that should worry you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Japan | 67.7 | Core farm workers (people whose main job is working their own farm) | 2025 census | About 70% are 65 or older (721,000 of 1,036,000, calculated from MAFF data) |
United States | 58.1 | All farm producers | 2022 census | 38% are 65 or older; 9% are under 35 |
European Union | 57 | Farm managers | 2020 data | 61.0% of farm managers were 55 or older in 2023 |
Canada | 56.0 | Farm operators | 2021 census | 60.5% are 55 or older |
Australia | 56 | Farm operators | 2015-16 agricultural census | Up from 54 less than a decade earlier |
England (UK) | Not published | Principal farmers and holders | June 2026 survey | 36.1% are 65 or older; 6.8% are under 35 |
Malaysia | Not published | Individual farm operators | Agriculture Census 2024 | 45.6% are 60 or older; 3.3% are aged 15 to 30 |
Why the numbers don't line up (and why that matters to you)
Japan's 67.7 is not the age of every person on every farm. It is the average age of "core" farm workers, the people whose main work is farming their own land. The US figure counts every producer involved in running the farm, so a husband, wife or adult child who helps make decisions is counted too. The EU figure counts one manager per farm.
So don't use this table to say "Japan is ten years older than America" in a bar argument. Use it for what it really shows: in every one of these rich farming countries, the people who run the land average their mid-fifties or older, and the young are not arriving fast enough to replace them.
That is the bigger truth, and it is the one that affects what your farm is worth to you.
The US: 58.1 Is the Average, but the 65+ Group Is the Real Story
The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 3.37 million farm producers in the United States. Their average age was 58.1, up 0.6 years from 2017.
The average hides the shift. Look at what happened inside the age groups in just five years:
Producers aged 65 and older grew 12.1%, from 1.15 million to 1.29 million. They are now 38% of all producers.
Producers aged 35 to 64 fell 9.0%, from 1.96 million to 1.78 million.
Producers under 35 grew only 3.9%, to about 296,000. They are 9% of the total.
In plain words: the middle of American farming is thinning out, and the oldest group is the one growing. For every producer under 35, there are more than four aged 65 or older. We covered what that means for the family in the farm succession plan guide.
Reality Check: Not every economist thinks the average age is a crisis. Ohio State's Carl Zulauf has argued the number is "not a problem," because farming needs capital that takes a lifetime to build, and US farmers have aged a little more slowly than the population as a whole. Fair enough. But that is a national argument. On your farm, the question isn't whether America will run out of farmers. It's who runs yours when your back says no. |
There is one more number worth knowing. The USDA counted just over 1 million "beginning" producers, people who have farmed 10 years or less. Their average age was 47.1. Many new farmers are not 25-year-olds. Plenty start in their forties and fifties. Keep that in mind; it matters when you think about who might lease your land or buy into your farm one day.
Japan, Europe, Canada, England, Australia and Malaysia
Japan: the country that shows everyone else the future
Japan's 2025 census counted 1.036 million core farm workers, down from 1.363 million in 2020. That is roughly a quarter gone in five years. Their average age was 67.7, and about seven in ten were 65 or older.
A 2026 government sample survey estimated the number had dropped again, to about 987,000, with the average age still at 67.7. The Japanese ministry itself warns that the 2026 figure comes from a sample survey, so it isn't a perfect match with the census. The direction is clear anyway.
Remember Japan. Later in this article you'll meet Japanese farm families who found a way to earn from visitors in exactly these conditions.
The European Union: 57, and only about one in ten under 40
The European Commission says the average EU farmer is 57, based on 2020 data, and only 12% of farmers were under 40 that year. Its new generational renewal strategy sets an aspirational goal of doubling the share of young farmers by 2040.
Newer Eurostat figures for 2023 show the trend still moving the wrong way. 61.0% of EU farm managers were 55 or older, and only 10.7% were under 40. In Cyprus and Portugal, more than half of farm managers were 65 or older. In Italy, it was 45.6%.
Canada: 56, and only 12% of farms with a written succession plan
Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture put the average farm operator at 56.0 years old, up a full year in five years. The median was 58. Six in ten operators (60.5%) were 55 or older, up from 54.5% in 2016.
Here's the number that should keep Canadian farm families up at night. Only 12.0% of farms reported a written succession plan. That was up from 8.4%, but it still means close to nine in ten farms have nothing on paper.
England: more than a third aged 65 or over
Defra's June 2026 survey found that 36.1% of England's principal farmers and holders were 65 or older. Only 6.8% were under 35, and only 18.5% were under 45. The age question was optional, so treat the exact figure with a little care. Defra's 2026 evidence pack put farm holders over 65 in 2025 at "two fifths" of the total.
England's farmers are also facing a new inheritance tax regime. More on that in the money section below.
Australia: 56, and 17 years older than the average worker
The Australian Bureau of Statistics put the average age of a farm operator at 56 in its 2015-16 agricultural census. When ABC News reported the figure, it noted farmers were about 17 years older than the average Australian worker, who was 39. We found no newer like-for-like national average from the ABS, so 56 remains the official comparison point.
Malaysia: almost half of farm operators are 60 or older
Malaysia's 2024 Agriculture Census counted just over one million individual farm operators. 45.6% of them, or 461,866 people, were 60 or older. Another 32.3% were aged 46 to 59. Only 3.3% were aged 15 to 30.
Malaysia's agriculture minister shared these figures with the Senate in 2026, describing an aging workforce, especially in rice farming and fishing. When nearly half your farmers are past 60, the question "Who takes over?" stops being private family business. It becomes a national one.
Why Are Farmers Getting Older?
It isn't one reason. It's five, and they feed each other.
No. 1: Land costs a fortune. The USDA valued average US farm real estate at $4,500 an acre in 2026, and cropland at $6,020 an acre, a record high. A young person can't buy a working farm on a starting salary. So the land stays with the people who already own it, and they grow older on it.
No. 2: Farmers don't retire like office workers. There's no gold watch at 65. Many keep farming because the farm is their home, their identity and their pension. Lee James put it this way in a 2026 interview with KRCB: when you retire as a farmer, you never really quit.
No. 3: The money doesn't pull the kids home. If the farm barely pays one household, it can't pay two. Children with good jobs in town look at the hours and the risk and say, "No thanks." Wayne James told CBS that some generations had decided to go and do more profitable work.
No. 4: People are living longer. A farmer who is 65 today may have 20 or more years ahead. That's good news for life. It's a hard question for a retirement plan built on a farm that needs young muscles.
No. 5: Nobody wants the hard conversation. Talking about succession means talking about death, money and which child gets what. So families postpone it. Year after year. If that is your family, start with these seven questions to ask your kids at the next family dinner.
The Wave Nobody Is Ready For: Who Gets the Land?
Here is where the average age stops being a statistic and starts being a market.
The USDA's 2024 land ownership survey (released in March 2026) found that 43 million acres of US farmland, about 5% of it, is expected to change hands in just the next five years. Over 35% of principal landlords are 75 or older, and 11% are 85 or older. Their average age is 69.2.
Look further out and the numbers get bigger. American Farmland Trust estimates that nearly 300 million acres of US agricultural land could change hands in the next 20 years. That is about a third of the farmland in the lower 48 states. Treat that as a projection, not a promise. But even half of it would be an enormous handover.
And not all of that land stays farmland. American Farmland Trust found the US lost or compromised about 2,000 acres of farm and ranch land every day between 2001 and 2016. Its forecast is that, if past trends continue, more than 18 million acres could be converted to other uses between 2016 and 2040.
How many farmers have a plan?
Fewer than you'd hope. The surveys measure different things, so here they are side by side:
Canada: 12.0% of farms reported a written succession plan in the 2021 Census of Agriculture.
UK: NFU Mutual found 38% of farmers had a succession plan, up from 27% in 2020. 32% said they didn't see a plan as necessary.
US: A 2023 Purdue University survey of 403 US producers found 55% had a written succession plan. Farms under 1,000 acres were less likely to have one, so don't assume smaller family farms look the same.
Put the age numbers next to the plan numbers and you see the problem. Millions of farmers in their sixties and seventies are holding valuable land with no plan for it. When a crisis hits, a fall, a stroke or a death, someone has to decide fast. Fast decisions about land are often sale decisions.
If your family has more than one heir, read what happens when siblings inherit the farm but not the vision before you assume they'll work it out.
Before You Sell a Single Acre: What Selling Really Costs
Selling feels clean. One signature, one check, done. Here is what that picture leaves out.
A sale pays you once. Land can pay you for decades. When you sell, the income from that acre stops forever. If the money sits in a bank, inflation chews on it every year. If you keep the acre and lease it, rent it or host visitors on it, it can pay you every season and still be there for your heirs.
Tax can take a big bite. Depending on your country, selling land can trigger capital gains tax, recapture of past depreciation, and the loss of farm-specific tax treatment. Each country's rules are different, which is why the questions section below matters.
In the UK, the inheritance tax picture just changed. From 6 April 2026, the 100% agricultural and business property relief is capped at £2.5 million per estate, with 50% relief above that. The government says the allowance can be passed between spouses, so a surviving spouse can pass on up to £5 million of qualifying assets with full relief. Some families will now think about selling or gifting land early. Don't do it before you've had proper advice. We covered the background in the family farm tax budget article.
Once it's gone, it's gone. Farmland that is sold to a developer rarely comes back. Your grandchildren can't buy back a housing estate.
Reality Check: Sometimes selling is the right answer. Debt, health, a family that truly doesn't want the farm, or simply being done. There's no shame in it. The mistake isn't selling. The mistake is selling in a rush, without testing whether the land could pay you to keep it. This article is about that test. |
Questions to Ask Your Lawyer, Accountant and Insurer
This isn't legal, tax or insurance advice. Every country, state and province is different. What it is: a list of questions that make your next meeting with a professional worth the fee. Print it and take it with you.
Questions for your lawyer
If I die tomorrow, who legally gets this farm? Does my current will (or lack of one) match what I actually want?
Should the land sit in a trust, a company, a partnership or my own name? What changes for my heirs in each case?
Can I lease part of the land to a neighbor or a young farmer, and what should the lease say about who pays for repairs and who carries the risk?
If I let paying visitors onto the farm, does my state, province or country have an agritourism law that limits my liability? What signs or waivers does it require? (US readers: start with our agritourism laws by state guide.)
Can I sell or gift part of the land and keep the farmhouse and the best visitor area?
Questions for your accountant
If I sold the whole farm this year, what would I pay in tax, and what would I actually keep?
If I sold only part, or sold over several years, how would that change?
If I kept the land and added visitor income, how is that income taxed? Is it farm income or business income where I live?
Can I pay family members who help with visitors in a tax-smart way?
What records should I start keeping now so my estate is simple for my heirs?
Our agritourism and taxes question list goes deeper.
Questions for your insurer
Does my current farm policy cover a paying visitor who gets hurt? A free one?
What does it cost to add agritourism or farm tour liability cover, and what limits do you suggest?
Are there activities you won't cover (animals, rides, ponds, food)?
If I lease land to someone else, whose policy covers what happens on it?
For the coverage basics, see what agritourism insurance covers and costs.
Paperwork to gather before any meeting
Land titles and survey maps. Your will and any power of attorney. Recent tax returns and farm accounts. Your insurance policies. Any leases, loans or easements on the land. A simple list of who you want to have what. One afternoon with a box of papers can save your family months of confusion.
Why Your Age Is the Opening for Agritourism
Now for the part most articles about aging farmers never get to.
Every list of "aging farmer" problems treats your age as a weakness. Slower body. Less energy. No successor. In the visitor business, many of those things flip.
Visitors pay for what you already have
A family from the city can't buy 40 years of knowing when the fruit is ready. They can't buy the story of the drought year, the flood year, or the day your father planted that tree. They can't buy a walk across land that has been in one family for generations.
You can sell them a few hours of it.
That is what agritourism is: getting paid for the land, knowledge and stories you already own. And the money is real. US farms earned $1.26 billion from agritourism and recreational services in 2022, according to the Census of Agriculture. 28,617 farms reported that income, an average of about $44,004 per farm. We broke the numbers down in our agritourism statistics guide.
In England, Defra found that 72% of farm businesses had some diversified activity in 2024/25, with average diversified income of £31,100 among those farms.
Older farmers are already doing it
Here is a fact that surprises people. When USDA economists studied agritourism, they found older operators were slightly more likely to adopt it than younger farmers, all else being equal. Gray hair isn't a barrier to visitor income. It may be an advantage. We made that case in detail in why visitors will pay to learn from a 60-year-old farmer.
It doesn't have to need heavy muscle
A farm tour is mostly walking and talking. A tasting is sitting and serving. A class is teaching. None of them need you to lift hay bales at 6 a.m. If you want ideas that suit an older body, start with how older farmers earn from visitors instead of muscle.
You keep owning the land
This is the big one. Visitor income doesn't ask you to sell anything. You can lease the heavy cropping or grazing work to a younger neighbor, keep the house and a few acres for visitors, and still own every acre in the family name.
Field-Tested Play: Before you spend a dollar, write down three things a visitor could learn on your farm in one hour. For example: how to pick a ripe fruit, how a cow is milked, how your grandfather built the barn. If you can name three, you already have the bones of a paid tour. Our farm tour business guide shows how farms price and run them. |
Real Farmers Who Let Visitors In Instead of Letting Go
Ajimu, Japan: an aging farm town that became a farm-stay destination
Ajimu is a small mountain town in Oita, Japan, once known for its grapes. In 1996, the town started a farm-stay program to bring new life to its aging farming communities, borrowing the idea of green tourism from Europe.
According to Japan's agriculture ministry, about 50 houses in the area now take guests. The local green tourism society charges 7,800 yen a night, including two meals. One host, Miyako Nakayama, welcomes guests into the roughly 180-year-old farmhouse where she was born. In busy seasons she hosts more than 100 guests a month, including school groups and visitors from Europe and Asia. Guests cook over an open hearth, harvest vegetables and make pickles.
The hosts, the ministry reports, say the guests give them "a purpose in life." That is not a small thing in a town where so many farmers are getting older. The ministry's 2020 story put Ajimu's guests at close to 10,000 a year.
Tono, Japan: a farm couple in their sixties and a guest dormitory
In Tono, a farming region in Japan, Noriyasu Sasaki (63) and his wife Manako (62) grew rice, blueberries, chestnuts, persimmons and wasabi when The Western Producer visited in 2018. They turned their barn into their home and their old house into a dormitory for guests.
A night with breakfast and dinner cost $109, the paper reported. Around 140 farming households in the area hosted visitors, and about 2,000 people a year took part. Visitors did real farm work, like harvesting chestnuts, and cooked with their hosts.
Dull's Tree Farm, Indiana: the son came home because of the visitors
Tom and Kerry Dull's farm near Thorntown, Indiana, grew row crops and sold Christmas trees. Their son Lucas came home after college with an idea: pumpkins. The first pumpkin harvest came in 2014. By 2019 the family had left row-crop farming altogether and leased the crop ground to a relative.
DTN reported in 2026 that the farm now draws about 80,000 visitors a year across 45 activities, from Christmas trees to a spring market. "We are selling an experience," Lucas told DTN. Notice what happened here: the visitor business gave the next generation a reason to come home, and the land stayed in the family.
Donnell Century Farm, Tennessee: 1826 land, a mother and son, and the crop ground leased out
The Donnell family has farmed near Jackson, Tennessee, since 1826. Seventh-generation farmer Andrew Donnell and his mother, Rose Ann, manage the farm today. In 2019, the family leased the corn, soybean and cotton ground to another farmer and put their energy into Donnell Century Farm Adventure, with about 30 attractions, a farm market and a butcher shop.
Same pattern. Lease the heavy work. Keep the land. Let visitors pay for the experience.
For more stories like these, from people of every age, see these young farmers' success stories and the story of Jeju's grandmother divers who put their life story on stage.
Reality Check: None of these places started big. Ajimu has been building since 1996. The Dulls grew one crop of pumpkins before they built 45 activities. And none of them is a guarantee for your farm. Location, local rules and your own energy all matter. That's why the next section starts small. |
The Sell-or-Keep Decision: Work Through It on One Page
Use this flowchart at the kitchen table. Better yet, use it with your spouse and your children at the same time.
Here's what the flowchart is really asking:
Do you need a lump sum soon? If yes, ask whether leasing part of the land could raise that money first. Selling a slice is very different from selling the farm.
Does anyone in the family want the farm? If yes, write the plan now. Visitor income can bridge the years until they're ready. If no, lease the heavy work and keep the land in the family name while you decide.
Do you still enjoy people? Agritourism is a people business. If you hate strangers on your land, that's useful to know. Leasing land or renting out buildings may suit you better (see how to rent out farm buildings).
Will your local rules and insurer allow it? If not yet, fix the gaps before the first paying guest.
Run one small paid test. One tour. One tasting. One class. Real money, real feedback.
A 12-Month Plan for Farmers Over 55
You don't need to change everything. You need to change one thing, then the next.
Months 1 to 2: Get the facts on paper. Gather the paperwork listed above. Book one meeting each with a lawyer and an accountant. Ask the questions in this article.
Months 3 to 4: Check the rules. Ask your local council or county what's needed for paying visitors: zoning, food rules, parking, toilets. Ask your insurer about cover.
Months 4 to 6: Design one experience. Pick the thing you already love to explain. Make it 60 to 90 minutes. Decide a price by checking what nearby farms and tour operators charge.
Months 6 to 9: Run your test. Invite 10 to 20 paying guests, friends of friends if you have to. Collect every email address and phone number. Ask every guest one question: "What did you like most?"
Months 9 to 12: Decide with real numbers. Now you know if people will pay, what they like, and whether you enjoyed it. That is a far better place to decide about selling than a tired evening in the middle of harvest.
Field-Tested Play: Start your customer list on day one, even before your first tour. A notebook of names and phone numbers of people who buy from you is worth more than most farmers realize. When you have a list, you can sell out a tour, a harvest or a class with one message, instead of waiting at the gate and hoping. |
Not sure if your farm is ready for any of this? Our list of 21 signs your farm is ready for paying visitors is a good gut check, and the Farm Readiness Quiz at the end of this article gives you a score in a few minutes.
What We See at Bloopy Durians
I'm Stephen Loke, founder of Bloopy Durians, a durian farm in Bentong, Malaysia. I share this not because a durian farm is the same as your farm. It isn't. I share it because it shows something the aging numbers above can't: on a visitor farm, the income comes from people, not from heavy work.
Our farm tours take about an hour and a half. Visitors plant a durian tree, ride through the farm in a four-wheel drive, tour the orchard, then sit down at the farmhouse to eat durians and learn how to tell a good one. None of that needs young muscles. It needs knowledge, a good story and a warm welcome.
Visitors come from all over the world, and many companies send their staff and management. The farm has been featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun.
The other thing that pays us is a WhatsApp list of loyal customers who buy durians each season. Durian season only runs about four to five months a year, so those repeat buyers matter. A list like that is the kind of income that still works when the farmer gets older.
One more note from Malaysia: besides running durian farm tours, Bloopy Durians is the Janny MT representative, and preliminary tests on local durians showed 5 to 10 extra days of shelf life, though more testing is needed.
The lesson for you isn't "grow durians." It's this: the land, the know-how and the relationships you already have are worth more when people can come and experience them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average age of farmers in the US?
The average age of all US farm producers was 58.1 years in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, up 0.6 years from 2017. 38% of producers were 65 or older, and only 9% were under 35.
What is the average age of farmers worldwide?
There's no single official world figure, because countries count farmers differently. In the richest farming countries, the averages sit between the mid-50s and late 60s: 67.7 for Japan's core farm workers (2025), 58.1 in the US (2022), 57 in the EU (2020 data), and 56 in Canada (2021) and Australia (2015-16).
Why are farmers getting older?
Mostly because land is expensive, farmers rarely retire fully, farm income often can't support a second household, people live longer, and many families put off the succession conversation. Young people also face high start-up costs, so the land stays with those who already own it.
What happens when a farmer retires with no successor?
Often the land is leased, sold, or passed to heirs who don't farm it. Without a written plan, the decision may be made in a hurry after an illness or death, and a quick sale is common. Leasing the land, selling part of it, or adding visitor income are ways to keep options open.
Should I sell my farm or keep it?
It depends on your debts, health, family and goals, so get professional advice. Before you sell, test whether the land could pay you to keep it, through leasing, direct sales or visitors. A sale pays once; land you keep can keep earning and can still pass to your heirs.
How can older farmers make retirement income without selling the land?
Common options include leasing crop or grazing ground, renting unused buildings, selling direct to a loyal customer list, and running low-labor visitor experiences like tours, tastings and classes. USDA economists found older operators are slightly more likely than younger ones to take up agritourism.
How many farmers have a succession plan?
It varies by survey. In Canada's 2021 census, only 12.0% of farms reported a written succession plan. In the UK, NFU Mutual found 38% of farmers had a plan. A 2023 Purdue survey of 403 US producers found 55% had a written plan.
Your Next Step: Find Out If Your Farm Is Ready
You've read the numbers. You know the average farmer is getting older, and you know selling isn't the only door out. The question now is simple: could your farm earn from visitors, and where would you start?
The free Farm Readiness Quiz takes a few minutes. It looks at your land, your location, your skills and your time, then gives you a score and shows where your farm is strong and where it needs work. You'll know whether to start this season, fix a few gaps first, or choose a different path.
Want ideas you can start with what you already have? Our free ebook, "150 Ways to Unlock Hidden Wealth From Your Farm," is a PDF packed with 150 ideas that make money from what your farm already has. Keep it by the kitchen table and tick the ones that fit your land, your energy and your age. It's free, and it's yours to keep.
P.S. Remember Lee and Wayne James in Santa Rosa? They farmed for more than 40 years, they had no heirs, and they rented their land rather than owned it. In June 2026 they decided buying it wasn't "the right fit for us at this moment in our lives." If you own your land, you hold a card they never had. Don't play it in a hurry. Take the quiz first.
Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Talk to a qualified adviser about your own farm.
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DTN/Progressive Farmer, "Agritourism Generates Fresh Money for Many Farms" (30 September 2026). https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/article/2026/10/01/farming-fresh-money
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