April 17, 2023

EU sees 37% drop in farm numbers in 2020 compared to 2005

There were 9.1 million farms in the European Union in 2020, representing an estimated 5.3 million fewer farms than in 2005 and an equivalent of a decline of about 37%, according to Eurostat.

Farms can be classified according to the activities that dominate farm income. Some farms earn income from diverse activities (mixed farming), while others earn income mainly from either crops or livestock. Specialised farming refers to when one activity accounts for at least two-thirds of the total standard output of a farm.

Although there were fewer EU farms of all types in 2020 than in 2005, declines in some types of farms were much sharper than others; there were 2.6 million fewer mixed farms, 1.6 million fewer livestock specialist farms and 0.9 million fewer crop specialist farms.

Almost three-fifths (58%) of all farms in 2020 were categorised as specialist crop farms. Slightly more than one-fifth (22%) of the EU's farms were specialist livestock farms, with specialisation in dairying being the most common type (5% of all farms), followed by cattle-rearing and fattening, poultry, and sheep, goats and other grazing livestock (each 4%).

Specialised pig farms represented 2% of all farms (in 2020, there were 137,890).

In 2020, just under one-fifth (19%) of all farms in the EU were mixed farms, meaning that they had multiple crops and/or livestock without a single activity making up at least two-thirds of standard output.

In the same year, just over half (52%) of the EU's utilised agricultural area (UAA) was found on crop specialist farms, with about one-third (33%) on livestock specialist farms and the rest on mixed farms (15%).

- Eurostat