Are Illinois farmers getting older?

A panel of data from the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management Association (FBFM) supports the advancing age level of the farmer, noting that there are fewer and fewer younger farmers. Farmers were placed into one of three age groups. A ‘young’ group of those under age 50. A ‘middle’ group of those age 50 and under age 70. And, a ‘mature’ age group of those over age 70.

From Illinois FBFM data that includes over 2,000 farms in each of the ten years from 2002 to 2011, one can confirm that those in the business of farming are largely a group of older individuals at the present time. Over half in the 2011 dataset are in the middle (age 50 to 70) group. The average age of the farmer in the 2011 data is between 55 and 56.

The mature group: The story is slightly different for those farmers in the mature (over age 70) group. The range from the high percentage to the low percentage was much less than the middle age group at 4.7%. The high percentage was at the end of the period at 9.7% and the low percentage for this group was in 2003 at 5.0%. With only a few exceptions, the trend has steadly increased.

The middle group: Over the ten years, the percentage of farmers in the middle (age 50 to 70) group increased in every year. The low was 42.0% in 2002 and the high was in 2011 at 60.7%; a difference of 18.7%. The trend was a steady increase.

The young group: For the under age 50 group, the scenario is remarkably the opposite of the middle and mature groups. The change for the under age 50 group was a decrease of 23.2%. The high percentage was in 2002 at 52.8% and the low percentage was in 2011 at 29.6%.