Introduction

This publication provides final results from the 2023 June Agricultural Census on land use, crop areas, livestock and the number of people working on agricultural holdings.

The publication provides an overview the results of the agricultural census and figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. Please visit the detailed tables to see the exact figures.

This year more than 70 per cent of census returns were online. The publication results for 2023 are compared to a five year average between 2017 to 2021. Comparing to a five year average allows us to compare the current year to average trends in the farming sector over a recent time period.

The time series contains estimated data for 2022. The June Agricultural Census did not take place in 2022 due to improvement work around the census.  Agricultural holding level estimates were produced using administrative data and replacement of missing data using data from either 2021 or 2023. For further information please see the methodology report.

An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland 

These statistics are accredited official statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation has independently reviewed and accredited these statistics as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. 

These statistics were accredited in 2013 and the accreditation notice can be found here.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.  

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.