DS Microdata > FSS EN REVAMP

Information on data details relevant for research project proposals

  • legal personality of the holdings: joined categories
  • age of the manager: joined categories
  • other gainful activities: joined categories
  • animal variables: in number of heads, micro-aggregated
  • labour force quantitative variables: in annual working units and persons, micro-aggregated
  • standard output: in euro, micro-aggregated
  • animal housing: in places, micro-aggregated
  • manure production and imports: in tonnes, micro-aggregated
  • crop variables: in hectares, micro-aggregated and rounded
  • irrigation variables: in hectares, micro-aggregated and rounded
  • tillage: in hectares, micro-aggregated and rounded
  • crop rotation: as share of arable land, in percentage bands
  • manure application: as share of agricultural area, in percentage bands
  • manure storage facilities: joined categories

Description of the data collection

Scope of the survey

The purpose of farm statistics, previously under Farm structure surveys (FSS) and currently under Integrated farm statistics (IFS), is to obtain reliable, comparable and detailed data, at regular intervals, on the structure of agricultural holdings in the EU to:

  • assess the agricultural situation across the EU
  • monitor trends and transitions in the structure of European farms (agricultural holdings)
  • manage, evaluate and design the common agricultural policy in terms of its environmental, economic and social aspects.

In this sense, farm structure data play a crucial role in policy-making because they are a key input in designing the common agricultural policy, which is managed and funded at EU level from the resources of the EU’s budget. These data are also used in other policy areas such as environment, regional development and climate change.

Farm structure data provide quantitative evidence to help monitor several of the UN's sustainable development goals as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all UN Member States in 2015.

Data collection

The different national data providers across Europe collect the data, which Eurostat then processes. They are responsible for selecting the samples, preparing the questionnaires, conducting the direct interviews or collecting the data from the corresponding administrative registers. They then transmit microdata to Eurostat.

Available microdata

Eurostat has been collecting EU farm structure microdata since 1990 through both the agricultural census (every 10 years) and sample surveys. Currently, microdata from 2010 (census year), 2016 and 2020 (census year) are available for research purposes. In the 2020 agricultural census, data were collected from over 9 million farms, with each holding providing between 200 and 400 variables.

Farm statistics scientific use files contain partially anonymised microdata. Methodological guidelines describe farm structure variables transmitted to Eurostat. The document  Anonymisation rules for Scientific use files – Farm statistics describes the differences between the original database (as defined in the EU regulation 1200/2009, EU regulation 715/2014 and EU implementing regulation 2018/1874) and the scientific use files.