Who are Canada’s farmers? New federal data provides a snapshot – National | 24CA News
The make-up of Canada’s farmers and the way they function seems to be displaying some modifications, in response to federal knowledge.
In a report, Statistics Canada mentioned Friday that farm households have gotten extra various and smaller, and extra farm operators live in city areas.
It’s additionally turning into extra frequent for farmers to diversify their earnings, as farming industries face vital challenges starting from drought, fires and local weather change to evolving shopper tastes, employee shortages and international value pressures.
Canada’s farmers are nonetheless principally made up of older individuals and males, the report mentioned. It outlined “farm population” as farm operators — those that handle the farms — and their households.
In 2021, over half the farm inhabitants have been males, at 52.5 per cent. Just beneath half of Canada’s inhabitants are males (49.4 per cent). Meanwhile, in 2021, greater than 4 in 10 male farmers have been 55 years outdated and older, in contrast with 31.2 per cent of the full inhabitants who have been in that age bracket.
Similarly, 41 per cent of ladies farmers have been in the identical age class, in comparison with 33.5 per cent of Canadians.
Immigrants additionally make up a portion of Canada’s farmers in 2021, sitting at 6.9 per cent, up from 6.8 per cent in 2001. However, immigrants make up a a lot smaller proportion of the farm operator inhabitants than the final inhabitants.
Immigrants made up 23.1 per cent of Canada’s inhabitants in 2021, up from 18.7 per cent in 2001.
Meanwhile, lower than 4 per cent of the farm inhabitants in 2021, 3.7 per cent, have been a part of a racialized group, whereas the demographic made up 26.6 per cent of the final inhabitants.
Among these within the farm inhabitants who recognized as from a racialized group, 53 per cent have been South Asian, adopted by Chinese at 15.8 per cent, Black at 5.9 per cent and Latin American at 5.9 per cent.
The report additionally notes that there are fewer farmers than prior to now as farms have develop into automated and complicated of their operations.
In 1971, one in 14 Canadians was a part of the farm inhabitants, however in 2021, that quantity decreased to at least one in 61 Canadians, a decline of 62.2 per cent.
The common dimension of a farm family additionally dropped to 2.8 individuals in 2021 in comparison with 4.3 individuals in 1971, in keeping with basic inhabitants developments.
Finally, extra of the farm inhabitants resides in city areas, with 24.5 per cent doing so in 2021, up from 16.1 per cent in 2016 and seven.5 per cent in 1971.
The best proportion of the farm inhabitants residing in city areas was reported in Newfoundland at 42.2 per cent, adopted by B.C. at 37.8 per cent and Alberta at 28.3 per cent.
Farms for dairy cattle, subject crops and livestock grazing have been nonetheless overwhelmingly situated in rural areas, whereas simply over 40 per cent of these with fruit, tree nut, vegetable and melon farms lived in city areas.
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