United States Department of Agriculture

The Tenure, Ownership, and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) Survey is a comprehensive study of all land rented out for agricultural purposes, including both land rented out by those who are themselves farmers and ranchers (operating landlords) and land rented out by those who do not operate a farm themselves (non-operating landlords). This survey is a follow-on component of the Census of Agriculture program. NASS conducted the TOTAL survey in collaboration with the Economic Research Service (ERS)

The TOTAL survey collected information about landowners who rent out agricultural land, including both landowners who farm or ranch and also rent agricultural land to other farmers and ranchers (operating landlords) and landowners who rent out land for agricultural purposes but do not farm (non-operating landlords). The survey collected acreage, income, expense, debt, and asset information related to land ownership, transition plans, and other landlord characteristics from both operating landlords and non-operating landlords, as well as demographic characteristics from non-operating landlords.

TOTAL results are available in digital form via NASS’ Quick Stats database. Several predefined queries are available on the results page to help find TOTAL data. NASS also compiled a summary of the key data highlight.

The survey results are in these four major components

1. Non-operator landlords who don’t farm
2. Operator landlords who farm and also rent out land to others who farm
3. All land rented out (both operator and non-operator landlords), and
4. All land (including farmers and ranchers who do not rent out land).

Landlords were surveyed in all 50 states; results are aggregated to a regional level that meet statistical standards. Data are available at the regional level as well as for the U.S. overall.

The estimates themselves are survey indications, so each data item has a range of reliability. This reliability is measured by a Coefficient of Variation, as shown on the CV column in Quick Stats. The survey methodology is explained in more detail in the Quality Measures Report.

No. The term landlord is applied to all types of landlord entities, including privately owned, trusts, family-owned legal entities, non-family legal entities, and other such as municipalities or institutions. Sometimes landlord entities rent out farmland in different arrangements to different farmers. For instance, a landlord might rent out land they own as an individual to a relative, and also belong to a corporation that rents out land to other farmers. This situation applies to a small percentage of non-operating landlords, but is important to remember when looking at the counts of landlords.

Demographic information is only available for non-operating landlords. If an entity had multiple owners or individuals, the respondent was asked to report data for a principal landlord.

Quick Stats is organized so that key summary variables are broken out by different categories. For instance, breaking out the total acreage rented out by age shows the amount of land rented out by each age group. These breakouts are called domains and include categories for principal landlord characteristics such as sex, age, race/ethnicity, value of land and buildings, acres rented out, number of tenants, landlord ownership types, and acres fully or not fully paid for.

The last time these type of data were collected was in the 2014 Tenure, Ownership, and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) survey. The 2024 survey uses the same overall design, concepts, and data collection approach as the 2014 version, making the two survey cycles comparable for most items. Changes to data collected occurred for ownership type and for principal landlords. Data for these items is not comparable.

For items that appear in both years, the underlying survey methods are consistent, allowing for meaningful comparisons.

No. All respondents are guaranteed confidentiality by law (Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2018, Title III of Pub. L. No. 115-435, codified in 44 U.S.C. Ch. 35 and other applicable Federal laws). These laws require us to all information about individual landowners and their land confidential. NASS publishes data only in aggregated totals.

NASS has several tutorials and documents available for you to familiarize yourself with Quick Stats. If you need additional help, you can email us at nass@usda.gov or call our Ag Statistics Hotline at 1-800-727-9540.