Percentage of Americans in volved in agriculture...1900 vs 2000

Factual Questions
1

Hi guys n gals.

I need to know what percentage of the US population was involved in agriculture in approx. 1900 and then again in 2000.

I know you won’t let me down!

2

Try the US Census Bureau. Some quick browsing would indicate that it’s in there.

3

More generally, the Statistical Abstract of the United States is a terrific resource for such questions.

4

This census data only goes back to 1929, unfortunately. The percentage of Americans involved in agriculture dropped from about 22% in '29 to about 3% in 2000. What I find even more interesting is that the actual number of Americans working in agriculture in 2000 is only 32% of the 1929 count (3,382,000 vs. 10,450,000).

5

There’s a 2 volume set called Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, published in 1976.

Link: http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/statab.html

From the Volume 2 labor force data:

1870: 47.6% of the employed were in agriculture
1900: 35.7% of the employed were in agriculture
1970: 3.6% of the employed were in agriculture

The population shares are lower, since not everyone is employed.
raw data:


	      1870			1900			1970	
ag	        5949	47.6%		10382	35.7%		2750	3.6%
nonag	        6557	52.4%		18691	64.3%		73804	96.4%
lab. Force	12506	100.0%		29073	100.00%		76554	

noninst 
population	28229			57950			139130
6

In the preceding table, for “labor force” read “total employed”.