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Farms. By legal status Catalonia
Physical person Society Public entity Cooperative Others Total
2016 51,137 2,795 114 453 3,043 57,543
2013 52,823 2,787 105 412 2,969 59,097
2009 54,695 2,976 128 416 2,624 60,839
2007 50,072 2,049 233 72 2,670 55,096
2005 52,711 1,974 240 64 2,514 57,503
2003 55,675 1,922 260 51 2,528 60,436
1999 62,378 1,750 274 126 2,710 67,238
1997 65,597 1,441 225 43 1,638 68,944
1995 68,362 1,156 227 29 1,317 71,091
Source: Idescat, based on data from the Survey on Farm Structure of INE.
Note: The 1999 data has been adapted to the population researched in the Agricultural Census 2009 in order to assist with comparability.

Last update: February 28, 2018.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Farm
Technical-economic unit from which agricultural products are obtained under the responsibility of one titular agent. Characterised by the use of a single set of means of production (labour, machinery, etc.). Includes exclusively forestry operations and prohibited hunting zones. Depending on the surface area, these can be with land or without land.

Methodological aspects

Agricultural statistics are generated within the framework of the EU programme on surveys on farm structure conducted by all EU members in order have up-to-date, comparable information on the member states, with the purpose of being used a basic tool for designing the Common Agricultural Policy. This programme establishes that an Agricultural Census shall be performed every ten years and sample-based surveys in the intervening years. For the cycle that starts with the Agricultural census 2009, two triennial surveys are established.

In these censuses, which are exhaustive, all the existing farms are researched, which from 2009, must comply with certain minimum criteria, while in the Surveys on Farm Structure the population studied complies with some less broad minimum criteria and the data is selected by sampling.

The introduction of these methodological changes with respect to previous editions means that the data is not directly comparable.

What is more, the census questionnaire also includes an additional sheet through which information of interest to the Catalan agricultural sector can be gathered.

Between 1989 and 2007, these statistical operations were conducted by Idescat with the support of the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fishing, Food and the Environment.

In 2009, the INE became the responsible body for the Agricultural census for Spain as a whole and in Catalonia it works in collaboration with Idescat and the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fishing, Food and the Environment, in accordance with the corresponding collaboration agreements.

The Survey on Farm Structure shows the biennial data series for intercensal periods up to 2007. The series will be triennial from 2013 onwards. From 2013 onwards, the thematic sections will include a section on Rural Development and another on Standard Production, which substitutes the processing of economic data on operations which was based on the gross margin until 2007.

Furthermore, in conjunction with DARP, Idescat has generated a variety of informative documents setting out the main results of the Agricultural Census and the Survey on Farm Structure, prior to 2009. The document devoted to the Agricultural Census contains a compilation of the main variables and compares them with the corresponding previous censuses, pointing out and commenting on the basic factors in their evolution in the intervening period.

The documents devoted to Survey on Farm Structure provide data on the main variables in this survey and compare them with the universe of reference of the corresponding Agricultural Census.

When the value is lower than that of the minimum unit to be able to estimate the statistical operation or if it effects statistical confidentiality, the symbol used is "..".