two-thirds of the category "farm workers and related occupations" were farm workers in 1980; the remaining one-third had related occupations such as groundskeepers and gardeners, and graders, sorters, and inspectors of agricultural products. Workers in this category were as likely to have urban as rural residences in 1987, whereas 9 out of every 10 farm operators and managers had rural residences (table 14).

Employed farm residents overall were a little more likely to work in nonfarm than in farm occupations as their primary job (table 13). Employed farm men, however, most often had farm jobs (61 percent), generally as farm operators and managers. Only onefourth of farm women worked in farm occupations, with equal proportions in each category.

Employment of farm residents in nonfarm occupations differed in the two major farming regions. The pattern was more pronounced in the South than in the Midwest. In 1987, 62 percent of employed farm residents in the South worked in nonfarm jobs. The proportion was 50 percent in the Midwest (table 15).

Statistics on industry of employment for the farm population are very similar to the occupational data, since most persons working in farm occupations are classified in the agriculture industry. The proportions of employed farm residents working in agriculture and in nonagricultural industries in 1987 were about the same-48 and 52 percent, respectively (table 16). Employed farm men most often worked in agriculture (61 percent); their leading nonagricultural industry was manufacturing. Farm women were most often in nonagricultural jobs, primarily in services. More than two-thirds of agricultural workers lived in rural areas in 1987 (table 17).

Class of worker. Farm men and women show different class of worker breakdowns than their nonfarm counterparts. In 1987, farm residents of both sexes were much more likely to be self-employed or unpaid family workers than nonfarm residents and less likely to work for wages and salaries (table 18). These differences are displayed primarily among workers in the agriculture industry (figure 4). For nonagricultural workers, the distributions by sex are more similar for farm and nonfarm residents.

The predominance of self-employment in agriculture is more pronounced among farm men than women. In 1987, about 70 percent of farm men working in agriculture were self-employed, compared with 49 percent of farm women. A much lower proportion of men than women were unpaid family workers, and similar proportions of both sexes were in wage and salary jobs.

Earlier agricultural employment patterns for farm women differ significantly from those in 1987. Since 1970, when the number of farm women employed in

agriculture totaled 431,000, the proportion reported as unpaid family workers dropped from 76 to 27 percent; wage and salary workers increased from 11 to 24 percent, and self-employed workers increased from 14 to 49 percent.

Self-employment is less common among rural nonfarm than rural farm workers (table 19). Even among agricultural workers, only one-third of those living in rural nonfarm areas were self-employed, compared with two-thirds of those living off farms.

Income and poverty. Money income for the year 1986 was lower for households and families living on farms than for those in nonfarm areas. The median income was $21,655 for farm households and $24,979 for nonfarm households, according to the March 1987 CPS supplement (table 20). The median income of farm families was $23,326 in 1986, just 79 percent of the nonfarm family median of $29,632. The relative concentration of farm families in the lower income levels is shown in figure 5.

There was no statistically significant change in the median income of farm families from 1985 to 1986, after adjusting for inflation. The median family income of nonfarm families, in contrast, increased by 4.3 percent.5

The income reported by farm households and families includes income from both farm and nonfarm sources. The Economic Research Service has estimated the sources of cash income received by households of farm operators. They estimate that in 1986, about 46 percent of cash income of farm operator households came from off-farm sources. Farm operator households with annual farm sales of less than $40,000, which represent 73 percent of all farms, received 81 percent of the total off-farm income.

The March 1987 CPS showed that in 1986, 16 percent of all farm families had incomes below the poverty level, compared with 11 percent for nonfarm families (table E). The poverty rate for all farm residents, including unrelated individuals, was 20 percent, also considerably higher than the rate of 13 percent for nonfarm residents.

Data on consumer income collected in the CPS are limited to money income received before payments of Federal, State, local, or Social Security (FICA) taxes and before any other types of deductions such as union dues or Medicare premiums. Money income is the sum of amounts received from earnings; Social

"U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 157, Money Income and Poverty Status of Families and Persons in the United States: 1986 (Advance Data from the March 1987 Current Population Survey), U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1987.

"U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Economic Indicators of the Farm Sector: National Financial Summary, 1986, ECIFS 6-2, December 1987.

233 16.1

233,475 31,374 13.4 63,043 6,790 10.8

Security and public assistance payments; dividends, interest, and rent; unemployment and worker's compensations; government and private employees pensions; and other periodic income. (Certain money receipts such as capital gains are not included.) Therefore, money income does not reflect the fact that some portion of all families receive part of their income in the form of noncash benefits such as food stamps, health benefits, and subsidized housing; that some farm families receive noncash benefits in the form of rent-free housing and goods produced and

consumed on the farm; or that some nonfarm residents receive noncash benefits such as the use of business transportation and facilities, full or partial payments by business for retirement programs, and medical and educational expenses. These elements should be considered when comparing income levels.

RELATED MATERIALS

Comparable figures for 1986 appear in Current Population Reports, Series P-27, No. 60, Farm Population of the United States: 1986. A list of publications for earlier years follows appendix B of this report.

Although not fully comparable with the Current Population Survey, data on the farm population collected in the 1980 census are available for all States on computer files (referred to as summary tape files, or STF's) as well as in published reports. Farm population data appear in STF 3 and STF 4 and in four report series and one Subject Report. The two report series based on STF 3 containing farm population data are Series PHC80-S2, Advanced Estimates of Social, Economic, and Housing Characteristics, and Series PHC804, Congressional Districts of the 98th Congress. The