Results from the June 2016 Scottish Agriculture Census

2. Introduction

This publication contains results from the 2016 June Agricultural Census on land use, crop areas, livestock and the number of people working on agricultural holdings.

Census statistics are used by government and stakeholders to assess agricultural activity by different sectors of the industry and to inform related debate and policies. They also form the basis of a large amount of further analytical work, such as that carried out to determine the details of Common Agricultural Policy ( CAP) reform. The government also uses these results to meet the requirements of Statistical Regulations of the European Commission.

Much of the crop and land use data used in the Census is taken from the Rural Payments and Services Single Application Form. Some elements of this year's data have been affected by recent changes to the system. Please see section 4.7 for further details.

This Statistical Publication provides commentary and graphics on the latest annual changes and trends over the past ten years.

It is available at www2.gov.scot/stats/bulletins/01250

Accompanying this release is an annex containing the Abstract of Scottish Agricultural Statistics [1] , which presents trends going back to 1982.

We are happy to receive comments on the content or format of this publication at:
email: agric.stats@gov.scot
Contact: Graeme Kerr
Tel: 0300 244 9709