USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service’s (NASS) Census of Agriculture is published every five years and provides data at the U.S., state, and county levels.

One metric tracked is the average age of agricultural producers. This information is provided for selected southern states for the Census reporting periods 2017 to 2022, along with the percentage change in average age for that timeframe.

The overall average ages for all producers for 2017 and 2022 for the southern states are indicated in Table 1.

In all states, average producer ages were increasing. For 2022, Mississippi and Florida had the highest average ages of producers at 59.6 and 59.5 years old, respectively. Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee had the largest percent change increases in average ages from 2017 to 2022. North Carolina had no change.

For this same timeframe, North Carolina had the largest numbers of counties with declines in average age of producers for 52 of their 100 counties, or 52 percent, followed by Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida (Table 2). Those with the smallest include Maryland, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Kentucky.

Figure 1 depicts county level decreases (yellow shade) or increases (blue shade) in average age of producers for the states analyzed. Those counties with no changes are depicted in a red hatched fill.

Related:3 steps to succession success

Source: Southern Ag Today, a collaboration of economists from 13 Southern universities.