The USDA Census of Agriculture Historical Archive is a collaborative project between Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University and USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
The site serves as the public archive of all historical agricultural census publications.
For the 2017 census, please visit the USDA NASS Census of Agriculture site.
About This Historical Archive
The Census of Agriculture, taken every five years, is a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. The Census looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures, and many other areas.
The first agriculture Census was taken in 1840 as part of the Sixth Decennial Census of Population. For 156 years (1840 – 1996) the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census was responsible for collecting data for the Census of Agriculture. In 1997, responsibility for conducting the Census of Agriculture transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
Please note that some census publications may be missing from this archive due to incomplete archival record keeping. Where this is the case, annotations have been made in the missing file location.
Data for census publications for 1997 and later cycles may also be found in the QuickStats application. This application allows you to create customized queries at the national, state and county levels.
Mann Library is proud to be the repository for the Census of Agriculture.
