Results from the Scottish Agricultural Census: June 2021

Agricultural Workforce

The majority of working occupiers (occupier and spouse) are older than 55

Agricultural workforce : 67,400

The total agricultural workforce is estimated to be around 67,400 workers. Although this estimate may not include some family members who also provide some labour.

The majority of the workforce are owner-occupiers, made up of people who own or rent the farm and work on it. Of all working occupiers (occupier and spouse), 60 per cent are male and 40 per cent are female.

Working occupiers are getting increasingly older. In June 2021, only 10 per cent of the total working occupiers were under 41. Male occupiers are generally older than female occupiers. Where 40 per cent of male farm occupiers were older than 64, this was true for only 32 per cent of female farm occupiers.

Regular employees steady while seasonal employees drop

Agricultural employees : 29,100

In June 2021, there were 29,100 regular and seasonal employees working in agriculture. This is an increase of one per cent compared to June 2020. Mostly due to the number of working partners and family members increasing by eight per cent.

The number of casual and seasonal workers decreased by three per cent compared to the previous year, to 8,000.

Evidence suggests that the levels of migrant labour fell which might have impacted production.