May 2008

Farmers have closed ‘education gap’
in recent decades

Over the past 50 years, American farmers have closed an education gap that historically set them apart from other Americans.

Today, farmers are more likely than other Americans to have completed high school and more likely than other rural Americans to have completed at least some college coursework. That’s according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, which published an article titled “Education’s Role in the Metro-Nonmetro Earnings Divide” in the February issue of its magazine Amber Waves.

ERS data indicates that in 2006 10.2 percent of U.S. principal farm operators had not completed high school, while 41.7 percent had earned a high school diploma, 23.1 percent had completed some college coursework and 25 percent had earned at least one college degree.

“The education level of farm operators is very similar to the educational profile for U.S. householders,” ERS notes on its Web site. “The highest education level for the majority of farmers and U.S. householders is to graduate from high school and perhaps even have a few years of college. Only about one-quarter of farmers and U.S. householders graduate from college with a four-year degree or more.”

In 1964, however, only 4 percent of U.S. farmers had a college degree, and two-thirds had not completed high school—putting them behind the trend for U.S. households in general.

“Some would argue that formal education is less important for a farmer than for other occupations because much of the human capital demanded of a farmer comes from farming experience,” ERS notes. “However, formal education attainment contributes to a farmer’s ability to adapt to the changing agricultural marketplace and to adopt new farming techniques. Higher education is also financially rewarding for the majority of farmers who are employed in the non-farm economy.”