Farm Population of the United States: 1978.

Based on the new farm definition (places of 10 or more acres if at least $50 worth of agricultural products were sold in the reporting year, and places of under 10 acres if at least $250 worth of agricultural products were sold), 6,501,000 persons, or 3% of the nation's population, lived on farms for the 12-month period centered on April 1978. Although the change in definition caused a reclassification of approximately 1.5 million persons from rural farm to rural nonfarm for 1978, use of the previous definition indicated no significant change in farm population from the preceding year, possibly signaling that the more than fifty year decline in farm population has finally come to an end. About 1.4% of the farm population was of Spanish origin, compared to 5.7% of the nonfarm population. Blacks on farms represented 5.4% of the total farm population and 1.4% of all Blacks. The farm population has a higher proportion of Whites than the nonfarm population. The median age of farm residents in 1978 was 33.8 years, as compared with 29.5 years for nonfarm residents. The farm population had about the same proportion of children as the nonfarm population, a lower proportion of young adults, and higher proportion of middle-aged and elderly persons. The median income of farm families, $12,235 in 1977, continued to lag behind that of nonfarm families. In 1978, 3 out of every 4 agricultural wage workers were nonfarm residents. (NEC)