It takes less than two per cent of the population to feed the country, according to a compilation of detailed facts on Canada’s farming population released by Statistics Canada.
Some of the findings are not so surprising. The number of people in the industry is declining as technological advances in machinery allow for consolidation of operations and people engaged in agriculture are older than the general population.
Four in ten people in the field are over the age of 55 compared to three in ten in the general population. And the segment of farmers under the age of 35 is lower than the general population.
But they do better financially than the general population. Back in 2001, that was not the case but in the two decades since, Canadian farmers have seen their incomes rise well above the median for the broader population, a reflection of larger operations generating increased revenues.
At 93,000 people living on farms, Saskatchewan stood fourth among the provinces in total numbers which represents 8.5 per cent of the provincial population, the highest density in the country.
