Farming Across America: A State-by-State Breakdown of Farms, Farmland, and Ag Income

The United States had 1,900,487 farms operating 880.1 million acres in 2022, an average of 463 acres per farm (USDA NASS, 2022; c002). Those national figures conceal major differences: farm counts, acreage, sales, income and commodities vary sharply by state. This guide explains what each measure means, gives the complete 50-state reference framework, and shows how to interpret the latest annual income estimates without confusing sales with profit.

What the 2022 Census says about U.S. agriculture

The 2022 Census of Agriculture is the latest comprehensive, five-year structural snapshot. It counted 1,900,487 farms and 880.1 million acres of land in farms, with an average farm size of 463 acres. Farmland represented 39% of U.S. land. Compared with 2017, the number of farms fell 6.9%, land in farms fell 2.2%, and average farm size increased 5.0% (USDA NASS, 2022; c002).

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Those operations generated $543 billion in agricultural-product sales/output, incurred $424 billion in production expenses, and produced $152 billion in net cash income in 2022. Forty-three percent of farms reported positive net cash farm income (USDA NASS, 2022; c003). Family-owned and operated farms accounted for 95% of farms and operated 84% of farm land (USDA NASS, 2022; c004).

NASS Administrator Hubert Hamer summarized the purpose of the release: “Census of Agriculture data tell a story.” — Hubert Hamer, NASS Administrator, 2024 release (c001).

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How to read the state-by-state measures

Farm count

“Number of farms” counts operations meeting the Census definition in each state. A high count does not mean a state has the most acreage or the highest farm income.

Land in farms and average farm size

Land in farms is the total acres reported as part of farm operations. Average farm size is land in farms divided by the number of farms. Large western and Great Plains operations can raise a state’s average even when the state has relatively few farms.

Sales or cash receipts

Market value of agricultural products sold is a Census measure for the reference year. ERS cash receipts are an annual measure of money received from marketed commodities. Both are revenue measures, not profit, and nominal-dollar comparisons must retain the year attached to them.

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Net cash income versus net farm income

Net cash farm income subtracts cash operating expenses from cash receipts and related cash income. ERS net farm income is broader: it includes noncash items such as depreciation and imputed rental income. ERS also reports a net-farm-income ratio—net farm income per dollar of production plus direct government payments (ERS; c010). Because the concepts differ, a Census sales total should not be compared directly with an ERS net-income estimate.

50-state reference: farms, farmland, sales and income

The 2022 Census “U.S. Summary and State Data” tables provide the structural columns below; the annual ERS state files provide income and cash-receipt measures. In the source material available for this article, individual state values are not stated, so each cell is labeled accordingly rather than estimated. Use the Census tables (USDA NASS, c005) and the latest ERS state files (USDA ERS, c006) for the numeric state series. “Leading commodities” must be read with its year and definition because a state can lead in production, sales or receipts for different commodities.

To build a sortable working version, download the Census state tables and Quick Stats files identified by NASS (c005), then pair them with the latest ERS state data release (c006). Record the publication year, whether an ERS value is an estimate or forecast, the geographic unit, the dollar basis and the retrieval date beside every column.

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Which state has the most farms?

The answer depends on the Census count, not acreage or sales. Use the “number of farms” column from the 2022 Census state table (c005) and keep the five-year Census year attached to the ranking. An annual ERS estimate should not be substituted into that structural comparison.

Which states have the most farmland?

Rank states by “land in farms” acres from the 2022 Census. The Census shows farmland concentrated in the center of the country, but acreage alone does not indicate productivity or profitability. A grazing-heavy state can have more acres while generating less sales per acre than a specialty-crop state.

Where do farmers make the most money?

Use an explicitly named income measure. In its 2022 analysis, USDA ERS identified Texas, Minnesota, California, Iowa and Illinois as the five states with the highest net farm income (USDA ERS, 2022; c008). Texas’s net farm income increased 64.9% from 2021 to 2022, while Minnesota’s increased 55.7% (c008). This is a dated ranking example, not a permanent leaderboard. ERS state estimates are revised as NASS production, sales and survey inputs change; the ERS page was updated September 21, 2026, with data generally current to September 3, 2026 (c006). Use that release when making a current ranking.

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ERS State Fact Sheets provide state-specific farm characteristics, financial indicators, leading commodities and exports for every state (c009). They are useful for explaining why a state’s sales and income ranking differs from its farm-count or acreage ranking.

Why state farm economies look so different

Corn Belt grain and oilseed scale

Central Corn Belt states tend to combine large planted areas, high grain and oilseed throughput and extensive networks of storage, processing and livestock demand. Their total receipts can be large even when margins vary with yields, prices and input costs.

Great Plains and Western cattle and grazing

Great Plains and Western states commonly devote very large acreages to grazing and cattle. That land base lifts average farm size and can make acreage rankings look impressive, while drought, feed costs and cattle cycles drive annual income swings.

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California and specialty-crop states

California and other specialty-crop regions can produce high receipts from fruits, vegetables, nuts, nursery products and other high-value crops on fewer acres than broad-acre grain or grazing systems. Water availability, labor costs and crop-specific prices matter as much as acreage.

Dairy-intensive states

Dairy-focused states can record substantial milk receipts, but feed, energy, replacement-animal and labor expenses determine how much of those receipts becomes net income.

How to compare states without misleading yourself

• For scale: sort by total farms, land in farms or total sales, and label the 2022 Census measure.
• For typical operation size: use average acres per farm, while remembering that averages can hide very unequal distributions.
• For profitability: use ERS net farm income or net cash income, never acreage alone.
• For efficiency: calculate per-farm or per-acre measures from consistently defined columns and the same year.
• For commodity exposure: identify the leading commodity and its measure—production, sales or cash receipts—before comparing states.
• For trend work: keep the five-year Census structure series separate from annual ERS estimates and note revisions.

Why the years and series cannot simply be blended

The Census is conducted every five years, making 2022 the latest comprehensive structure snapshot used here (USDA NASS, c001). ERS income estimates are annual and revised. ERS’s broader series reports 1.88 million U.S. farms in 2024, down 8% from 2.04 million in the 2017 Census (USDA ERS, 2024; c011), but that estimate is a different series and should not be inserted into a 2022 Census table. Keep each figure’s year, definition, geography and estimate status visible whenever you publish or analyze it.

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