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KEY FIGURES

	Aust. '000 ha	NSW '000 ha	Vic. '000 ha	Qld '000 ha	SA '000 ha	WA '000 ha	Tas. '000 ha	NT '000 ha	ACT '000 ha
Area of farms	371 078	53 438	10 676	127 551	47 580	76 802	1 459	53 546	25
Area of crops (a)	24 628	6 374	4 142	2 336	3 544	8 104	np	np	np
Area of non-agricultural land	398 124	26 626	12 065	45 514	50 768	176 185	5 381	81 367	210
Total land area (b)	769 202	80 064	22 742	173 062	98 348	252 988	6 840	134 913	236

• At 30 June 2016 there were 371 million hectares of agricultural land in Australia, a 1% increase compared with the previous year. Coinciding with this increase in agricultural land, there were 952 more agricultural businesses, representing a 1% increase since 2014-15.
• Of all the states and territories, Queensland had the highest proportion of agricultural land, accounting for 34% of total area of holding in Australia, a decline of 1% since 2014-15.

	Aust.	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT
Average age of provider (yrs)	56	57	57	56	55	55	55	50	58
Average time provider involved in farming (yrs)	35	36	36	36	34	34	34	24	30
Male providers (%)	78	78	80	73	83	80	81	66	67
Female providers (%)	22	22	20	27	17	20	19	34	33
SOURCES OF FARM INCOME (%)
Agricultural production on holding	84	82	84	82	88	87	83	82	66
Off-farm employment/business activities	12	13	12	14	9	10	14	11	22
Other sources including grants, government transfers and relief funding	4	4	4	5	3	3	3	np	np
Not stated	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0

• The average number of years respondents were involved in farming was 35. New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria had the highest average at 36 years and the Northern Territory the lowest at 24 years.
• The majority of business income for agricultural producers in 2015-16 was from agricultural production (84%), up from 83% in 2014-15.
• Figure 1 shows the location of agricultural businesses in Australia

• The scope for the 2015-16 Agricultural Census was all agricultural businesses with an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) of $40,000 or greater. This is a change from previous ABS rural environment and agricultural collections, where a scope of EVAO of $5,000 or greater was used. This change was foreshadowed in February 2016 in Agricultural Census: Nature and Content, 2015-16 (cat. no 7100.1).
• The 2014-15 estimates presented in this publication have been revised to use the new scope of $40,000 or greater.
• For more information about EVAO and the change in scope, refer to the Explanatory Notes within this release.