Less than one in three people working in farming is under 45 years of age and one in five are over 65, the 2022 Census results have revealed. Only 30% of workers in agriculture, forestry and fishing are under 45, barely half the national average of 57% across all sectors.

Another worrying demographic indicator is the number of workers under 35. Only 15% meet that mark for agriculture, forestry and fishing, barely half the figure for all sectors combined.

The picture gets no better when looking at the proportion of workers in farming and related sectors over 65 years of age. One in five (20%) are over the traditional retirement age. No other sector had anything like as many older workers, with the transport/storage sector the next highest at only 5% – four times less.

Farming also reports the second-worst gender balance among employment sectors. Only the construction sector has a lower percentage of female workers than the 12% working in farming, forestry and fishing.

Despite the increased labour demand from dairy expansion, the number of people working in farming, forestry and fishing has fallen by 10% over the last decade, from 91,500 to 82,200.

All of these figures are exclusive of self-employed people in agriculture, a category that includes most farmers.

The number of self-employed workers, which would include most farmers, fell in 2022 compared to 2016.

Skilled agricultural workers were among the most likely categories of workers to work from home, with 46% reporting they did so. Of these, 62% reported working from home seven days of the week, 10 times higher than any other sector.