2001 Census of Agriculture Highlights

(CP) – Highlights from Tuesday’s release of data from the 2001 Census of Agriculture:

– Canada’s farm population continues to decline, dropping from 851,410 people in 1996 to 727,125 in 2001.

-Immigrants are a declining proportion of the farm population, opposite the trend in the general population.

– Between a third and one-half of immigrant farmers from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany – the three most frequent countries of birth for farm immigrants- came to Canada before 1961.

– The average total income from all sources for all farm families in 2000 was $64,160, 3.2 per cent lower than the $66,263 received by families in the general population.

– Net farm income contributed 18 cents of each dollar earned in total farm family income for 2000, slightly lower than in 1995 but dramatically down from 31 cents in 1980.

– Eight of 10 people in the farm population identified themselves as either Roman Catholic or Protestant, slightly higher than the seven out of 10 in the general population.

– Less than one per cent of the farm population are members of a major non-Christian religion, compared with six per cent of the general population. The only group showing an increase are Sikhs, who are mostly fruit farmers in British Columbia.

-People who declare themselves as having no religion represented 16.2 per cent of the farm population in 2001, up from 7.3 per cent in 1981.