People - Adjustment - Number of Farm Families
Number of Farm Families
Data Sources
The count of farm families is drawn from customised tables produced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Population and Housing census. The farm family is defined as any family unit with at least one member describing their major occupation as farming. The farm family count for 1986 is presented to represent the structure of the farm sector at the commencement of the period under study.
Indicator construction
The indicator is a simple count of the number of families with at least one member describing himself or herself as having farming as their main occupation.
Indicator limitations
- There is some debate as to the exact meaning of farmer in Australian Bureau of Statistics Population and Housing Census data. Does the self-definition reflect a respondent's dependence upon farm income, his or her time allocation to off farm work, or a more fundamental self-image? Without further research, there is no means of answering these questions with any certainty. In the meantime, it will be assumed in this project that the definition of Farm Manager includes all farm managers who derive the major portion of their income from their farm.
Observations
- In 1986 there were 129,358 farm families reported to the Population and Housing Census. These families included over 250,000 persons who described farming as their main occupation.
- There are few surprises in this map. The greatest numbers of farm families is in on the inner slopes of the Great Dividing Range of south east Australia. This corresponds with the greatest numbers of farm establishments.
- There were a significant number of farm families along the coastal strip of south east Australia and north and east Tasmania. There were clearly a greater proportion of farm families in this zone than would be expected by the number of farm establishments. This difference is explored in the next section.
Figure 1 Number of farm families by Statistical Local Area in 1986
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See appendix figures 20-23 for further geographic detail.
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