United States Department of Agriculture

Overview - Ag Census Web Maps

The Census of Agriculture provides a detailed picture every five years of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. Conducted by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, the 2022 Census of Agriculture contains over six million data points. The Ag Census Web Maps application makes this information available at the county level through a few clicks. The maps and accompanying data help users visualize, download, and analyze Census of Agriculture data in a geospatial context.

The Ag Census Web Maps give researchers, policymakers, planners, lenders, agricultural agencies, agribusinesses, and producers easy access to many factors that affect agriculture and producers in more than 3,000 counties across the country.

NASS makes the web maps and associated data available to:

• Give those who provide services to producers and rural communities access to community-level data.
• Give producers, businesses, policymakers, and others the data to make informed decisions.
• Give users the ability to interact with the maps.
• Provide a spatial overview of various aspects of U.S. agriculture.
• Show spatial relationships and patterns across regions and topics.

What Do the Web Maps Include?

The Ag Census Web Maps application assembles maps and statistics from the 2022 Census of Agriculture in five broad categories:

• Crops and Plants – Data on harvested acreage for major field crops, hay, and other forage crops, as well as acreage data for vegetables, fruits, tree nuts, and berries.
• Economics – Data on agriculture sales, farm income, government payments from conservation and farm programs, amounts received from loans, a broad range of production expenses, value of land and buildings, and machinery equipment.
• Farms – Information on farm size, ownership, and Internet access, as well as data on total land in farms, land use, irrigation, fertilized cropland, and enrollment in crop insurance programs.
• Livestock and Animals – Statistics on cattle and calves, cows and heifers, milk cows, other cattle, goats, and horses.
• Producers – Statistics on hired farm labor, tenure, land rented or leased, primary occupation of farm producer, and demographic characteristics such as age, sex, race/ethnicity, and residence location.

See Download Data and Documentation for a complete list of mapped statistics and data documentation.

What Can You Do with the Web Maps?

The Ag Census Web Maps application allows you to:

• Select a map to display from a list of five general categories and associated subcategories.
• Zoom and pan to a specific area; use the inset buttons to center the map on the continental United States; zoom to a specific State; and show the State mask to fade areas surrounding the State.
• Create and print maps showing the variation in a single data item across the United States (for example, average value of agricultural products sold per farm).
• Select a county and view and download the county’s data for a general category.
• Download the U.S. county-level dataset of mapped values for all categories in Microsoft ® Excel format.

How the Maps Were Made

The U.S. Census Bureau provided a generalized county cartographic boundary file. NASS modified the county boundary file to show the county-level geographic areas for which agriculture census statistics are reported. The statistical data and geographic areas were identified by Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) codes that allowed for a 1-to-1 correspondence between the data and the geographic area.

The web map production system utilized geographic county and state boundary files, agricultural statistical data files, map parameter data files, and customized Geographic information system (GIS), statistical and web programming software to produce the thematic maps and web application. The thematic maps are based on statistical data from the 2022 Census of Agriculture conducted by NASS. GIS software used choropleth classification methods (natural breaks, quantiles, etc.) to determine appropriate class ranges, which were rounded for better user comprehension. Each county-equivalent entity was assigned a class range depending on its data value. Colors for the maps were selected with the assistance of ColorBrewer, an online tool for selecting map color schemes. The color schemes were developed by Dr. Cynthia A. Brewer at Pennsylvania State University. NASS statisticians reviewed and selected the class ranges for the choropleth maps. Geographic entities with non-disclosed data are shown because the selected class ranges are wide enough so as to not discern the actual data value, thus providing a complete picture of U.S. agriculture.

Cartographic Boundary Files

The cartographic boundary files are generalized, digital vector files of state- and county-level geographic areas for which 2022 Census of Agriculture data are reported. The cartographic boundary files can be used with GIS software as a base for medium to small-scale thematic mapping. These boundary files are not map images. They were developed to support USDA-NASS projects involving map production for the U.S. 2022 Census of Agriculture. The cartographic boundary files on this site are in ESRI™ shapefile format.

States only: Download State Boundary and Metadata ZIP File

Counties only: Download County Boundary and Metadata ZIP File

States and counties: Download State and County Boundary and Metadata ZIP File

Recommended Citation

USDA NASS, 2022 Census of Agriculture, Ag Census Web Maps. Available at:
www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2022/Online_Resources/Ag_Census_Web_Maps/Overview/.