A total of 348m acres of farmland was rented by two million landowners in the United States in 2024, with 79% of this land owned by non-farming landlords, new data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows.

These landlords include entities who rent out agricultural land under a variety of ownership arrangements (privately owned, trust, family entity, non-family entity or other).

Of the land rented out by non-operating landlords, over 251m acres were rented out by private landowners, trusts or family entities.

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Rented farmland acres, combined with buildings on this land, are valued at more than $1.6tn [trillion], according to the survey.

In 2024, landlords combined received $34.1bn in rental income, while incurring $12bn in total operating expenses – this puts the cost of renting an acre of farmland, on average, at just shy of $100/ac.

Ownership transfer

“About 5% of the nearly 900m US farmland acres, or about 43m acres, is slated for ownership transfer in the next five years, not including farmland that is in or is expected to be put into wills or trusts,” said National Agricultural Statistics Service administrator Joseph L Parsons.

Only 23m acres of land are expected to be sold to a non-relative, while 20m acres are expected to be sold to a relative or given as a gift. This means that only a small percentage of farmland will be available for purchase, the USDA said.

The survey also provides a glimpse into demographic information for 1.8m non-farming entities, also known as principal landlords. According to the findings, the average age of these landlords is 69.2 years old.

This age exceeds that of the average farmer, who is 58.1 years old, according to the 2022 US census of agriculture. Only 12% of all principal landlords were under 55 years old. Nearly 52% of all the principal landlords have never farmed.