Scottish Agricultural Census: June 2018

Number of people working in agriculture decreases

Working patterns split by gender in June 2018

Gender and age data for occupiers is based on the 75 per cent of occupiers who returned this information.

Number of people working in agriculture Scotland in 2018 : 66,600

The total number of people working in agriculture dropped over the past year. The total number fell by 400 workers to 66,600 in June 2018.

Most of these workers are farm occupiers. Farm occupiers are people who own or rent the farm and work on it. They make up 56 per cent of the agricultural workforce.

Most farm occupiers are male, with 38 per cent of working occupiers being female. Farm occupiers are mostly older; an estimated 36 per cent of male working occupiers and 30 per cent of female occupiers are 64 and older. Female occupiers are more likely to work part time, 83 per cent amongst females compared to 58 per cent of males.

Regular staff make up 31 per cent of the total workforce, of which more worked full time than part time.

The number of seasonal and casual workers, largely associated with fruit farms, was reported as 8,200 in 2018, though this is likely to be an undercount.