Finding data

The Agricultural Census is conducted in June each year by the government departments dealing with Agriculture and Rural Affairs for Scotland, England and Wales (i.e. SEERAD, DEFRA and the Welsh Assembly's Department for Environment, Planning and Countryside). Each farmer declares the agricultural activity on the land via a postal questionnaire. The respective government departments collect the 150 items of data and publish information relating to farm holdings for recognised geographies.

Since the late 1990s the agricultural census in England has been conducted as a sample survey  in which data is only sought from a proportion of holdings in each year. The Statistical Directorate of the Welsh Assembly Government commenced with an agricultural survey (to replace the agricultural census) in 2006.

EDINA agcensus service provides access to annual grid square estimates of agricultural activity at 2km, 5km and 10km levels of aggregation for the three UK territories named above from 1969.