Documentation of statistics agricultural and horticultural labour force

Data description

The statistics describe the labour force of agriculture and horticulture. The statistics are comparable with the statistics of agricultural and horticultural labour force in all EEA countries, for which data has been collected using farm structure surveys.

Classification system

The area classification of the statistics is the whole of Finland and by region. Statistics is also published by possessory and production lines of agricultural and horticultural enterprises. 

Sector coverage

Data on agricultural and horticultural labour force is collected in the Farm Structure Survey every 3–4 years. The Farm Structure Survey isba sample survey covering about one third of agricultural and horticultural enterprises in the reference year.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Annual working unit (AWU) means the working hours worked by a single worker in agriculture in a year. One AWU equals 1,800 annual working hours, i.e., eight hours a day on five days a week for 11 months. The definition of AWU varies slightly between different EU Member States depending on regular working hours in each state. In each Member State, one AWU equals the regular annual working hours in that state.

Temporary labour force covers all temporary workers hired for agricultural and horticultural work on farms (less than six months per person or part of the season on crop farms).

Education in agriculture and horticulture. Basic education in agriculture includes basic studies in farming completed at an educational institution for agriculture. A higher-level education in agriculture includes degrees in agrology and agronomy. Data on education is asked from the person responsible for farm management.

Agricultural and horticultural work covers all production-related tasks carried out on a farm or in a horticultural enterprise. Agricultural and horticultural work includes: crop cultivation, work on livestock; accounting, management, and planning in agriculture and horticulture; repair, maintenance, and servicing of machinery, reconstruction, renovations and repairs in agriculture and horticulture, work carried out in a garden or greenhouse (in horticultural production intended for sales), beekeeping, work related to the storage of agricultural and horticultural products, and preparation of products for sales. Agricultural and horticultural work does not include household chores, hunting, fishing, aquaculture, reindeer husbandry, or fur farming.

A farming syndicate is a type of ownership of an agricultural or horticultural enterprise, in which a group of natural persons owns, leases or otherwise runs a farm together or their own farms as if they were a single farm. Employees of farming syndicates include all farm shareholders participating in agricultural work, their family members of at least 15 years of age, and regular and temporary employees outside the family hired for agricultural work, including farm relief workers, contractors and similar.

An agricultural or horticultural enterprise is a farm engaged in agricultural or horticultural production whose financial size is at least EUR 2,000 calculated using the standard output (SO) method. This definition was adopted when calculating results from 2013.

Before 2013, a farm needed to have at least one hectare of farmland in use or domestic animals at least by one livestock unit. Before 2000, an active farm needed to have at least one hectare of farmland or garden under control and be engaged in agricultural production or other business activities.

A legal person is a type of ownership in which an agricultural or horticultural enterprise is owned by a company, cooperative, limited liability company, foundation, the state, a municipality, parish or other similar organisation. On these types of farms, agricultural and horticultural workers include farm managers and other regular and temporary employees, including contractors and similar.

A family-run farm is a type of ownership in which the holder of an agricultural or horticultural enterprise is an individual, marital or cohabiting spouses, siblings, beneficiaries of a will or inheritance, or a single holder who has an exclusive financial and legal responsibility for a farm that fulfils the definition of a farming syndicate. Employees on family-run farms include farmers, their spouses engaged in agricultural and horticultural work, other members of the farmer’s family, regular and temporary employees, including farm relief workers, contractors and similar. Other family members include close relatives of at least 15 years of age in the first ascending or descending generation engaged in agricultural and horticultural work, including cohabiting spouses of family members engaged in agricultural work and pensioners, regardless of whether they receive wages for their work.

Standard output SO is the average income as Euros per hectare received for agricultural products, or Euros per livestock by farm prices. Prices used in calculating Standard Output are five-year averages. SO does not take subsidies into account, because in agricultural politics of the EU subsidies are separate from production. Thus, subsidies per product cannot be calculated. Standard output can be used to calculate the financial size of an agricultural or horticultural enterprise. More information on Standard Output can be found on the Eurostat website: Glossary:Standard output (SO) - Statistics Explained (europa.eu)

The farm manager is responsible for financial and production tasks related to a farm’s regular daily activities. The farm manager is regarded as a regular salaried employee.

The production line is determined in accordance with the agricultural or horticultural enterprise’s most economically significant product. This data is calculated using the SO method. If more than two thirds of a farm’s total output comes from a single product, the farm is included in the production line category corresponding with this product.  If no such product exists, the farm’s production line is mixed production.  The SO method was first used in the 2013 results. Prior to this, the farmer indicated their farm’s production line in conjunction with subsidy applications.

Foreign workforce means foreign, i.e., non-Finnish, employees working on a farm. A farm’s foreign workforce includes hired foreign employees (not including foreign farmers or members of the farmer family).

Contractors include excavator or farming machinery contractors or employees hired by a construction company who have worked on a farm.  The farm does not directly pay wages to these contractors; instead, they receive compensation for a contract or service.

Regular employees are not included in the farm population. Regular employees include those who have worked for at least six months in agricultural or horticultural activities on a farm during the previous 12 months. On crop production farms, those who have worked for less than six months but throughout the crop production season are also regarded as regular employees. In addition, regular employees who have been absent for part of the year due to an obstacle, such as an illness, holiday, military service or accident, are included in regular employees.

Farm population means farmers and their spouses engaged in agricultural and horticultural work on their farm, other members of the farmer’s family, shareholders in farming syndicates and their family members.

Statistical unit

The statistical unit is an agricultural or horticultural enterprise.

Statistical population

The statistical population contains all active agricultural and horticultural enterprises with production. Active agricultural or horticultural enterprises are farms or enterprises with a financial size of over EUR 2000. The financial size is calculated by using the Standard Output (SO) method. This definition was adopted when calculating results from 2013.

Reference area

Preliminary information is published for the whole of Finland. Final information is published additionally by ELY Centres and production sectors.

Time coverage

Data on agricultural and horticultural labour force has been collected in 2023, 2020, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2005, 2003, 2000, 1997, and 1995.

Unit of measure

Data on agricultural and horticultural labour force is given in persons and annual work units (AWU).

Reference period

The statistics describe the state of labour force of agricultural and horticultural enterprises at the time of recording the statistics.

Frequency of disseminations

The Farm Structure Survey is conducted every 3 to 4 years. Data on agricultural and horticultural labour force is collected each time. 

The statistics are compiled based on the Act on the Natural Resources Institute Finland (561/2014), the Act on Food and Natural Resource Statistics (562/2014), the Statistics Act (280/2004), and the Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union concerning crop statistics (2018/1091).

More information: Statistics legislation

Confidentiality - policy

Confidentiality is a base principle of statistics and assures the confidential processing of data provided by informants, and the Natural Resources Institute Finland has undertaken to follow this principle. Micro-data is confidential and must never be released for administrative decision-making, investigation, surveillance, legal proceedings, or similar purposes.

Confidentiality - data treatment

The confidentiality of data collected for statistical purposes is guaranteed according to the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Personal Data Act (523/1999), the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679). Data is protected at all stages of processing using the necessary physical and technological solutions. The staff only has access to information necessary for their duties. Unauthorised people do not have access to spaces in which micro-data is processed. Staff members have signed a non-disclosure agreement when entering duty. Intentional breach of confidentiality will be penalised.

More information: Privacy policy – Statistics

The disseminations of the Natural Resources Institute Finland are published online on weekdays at 9:00.  Data is public after it has been published on the website.

Release calendar

The publication dates are confirmed in autumn together with the action plans. The release calendar of the following year is published for users in the end of the year. The release calendar holds data on the dates of future publications. The calendar also contains direct links to already published statistical publication.  

Release calendar access

Statistical releases calendar | Natural Resources Institute Finland

Quality assurance

The Natural Resources Institute Finland follows the Code of Practice and the Quality Assurance Framework of European statistics when compiling statistics. The Code of Practice concern the independence and accountability of statistics authorities, and the quality of processes and published data. The principles are compatible with and supplement the Principles of Official Statistics, agreed upon by the United Nations Statistical Commission. The quality criteria of official statistics in Finland are also compatible with the Code of Practice of European statistics. The principles are also compatible with the European Foundation for Quality Management.
The annual quality assurance of statistics performed by Statistics Finland includes statistics produced by the Natural Resources Institute Finland.
The response material of the statistics is reviewed and edited on a monthly basis. Additionally, the non-response is investigated based on variable background information. 

Quality assessment

The quality is assessed in the data processing stage.

User satisfaction

Feedback is collected from the users of the statistics, especially when revising the statistics. Feedback is also received directly. In addition, we investigated the wishes of users for developing the statistics in the autumn of 2021 and beginning of 2022, when updating the work programme for the Natural Resources Institute Finland. We follow the received feedback and take it into consideration in developing the statistics.

Overall accuracy and reliability

The response rate of Farm Structure Survey is between 82 and 88 per cent. The sample size covers about one third of the total number of farms in related year of survey. The data is very reliable due to a large sample size and a high response rate.

Some of the data on agricultural and horticultural labour force is based on farmers’ estimates. Generally, the farmers are able to answer questions on an accurate enough level.

Coverage error

The register of agricultural and horticultural enterprises is revised yearly, and farms that have stopped production are removed from the register. Because of this there is no significant over-coverage in the statistics.

Timeliness

The statistics will be published as soon as possible after the data collection. The results will be published as final results.

Comparability - over time

Data on the labour force of 2023, 2020, 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007 is comparable. The results regarding these years include both farms and horticultural enterprises. Prior to this, labour force data was published separately for farms and horticultural enterprises. Between 2005 and 2007, the process of compiling labour force statistics was changed. In 2005, work time data was asked in days, while it has been asked in hours since then. Before 2005, work time data was asked divided into work time categories.

Coherence - cross domain

The statistics are coherent with other statistics on agricultural and horticultural enterprises. 

Source data

Data is collected from farms included in the sample of the Farm Structure Survey.   

Frequency of data collection

Data is collected every 3 to 4 years in the Farm Structure Survey.

Data collection

Data on agricultural and horticultural labour force is collected in the Farm Structure Survey every 3–4 years. The previous Farm Structure Survey was conducted in 2020.

Data collection includes farms included in the register of agricultural and horticultural enterprises. Data is collected online or by phone interviews. Phone interviews are conducted by a third-party company selected by the Natural Resources Institute Finland. In 2023 the number of agricultural and horticultural enterprises in Finland was approximately 42,300. Data on labour force was collected from approximately 12,200 farms.

Data validation

If for example an abnormally large observation is spotted during the data compilation process, the authenticity of data is reviewed. 

Data compilation

Data collected with the sample survey is estimated using the normal multiplying factor of stratified sampling. Faulty or abnormal data from the sample survey are either revised or removed from the material. The data for missing responses is restratified.