Surveys for farm structure, agricultural accounts and total income of agricultural households

The official European Union (EU) statistics on the economic situation of agriculture are outlined. They are based on three types of unit - the production unit, the household and the commodity. Economic statistics relating to agricultural production fall into two types, aggregate ones (based in national accounts) and survey-based results. Both use well-established EU-wide harmonised methodologies which are applied by national statistical authorities, though the two levels are not fully integrated. In response to an emerging information need which reflects the multi-functional nature of farm families, Eurostat has recently supplemented these by an account covering the complete income picture of the agricultural households sector in each Member State, with comparable figures for other socio-professional groups. Developing the methodology involved facing questions fundamental to policy, such as what constitutes an agricultural household, and results have been generated that challenge basic assumptions behind policy. However, this still leaves a large information gap on the distributional aspects of incomes in agriculture that only an improvement in the provision of microeconomic statistics can fill. Methodological developments in surveys are hampered by institutional and political factors, so progress is slow.