摘要：Recent census data indicate that a sizeable proportion of individuals and families operating farms in the United States are choosing to live in urban and rural communities rather than on the farmstead. This phenomena is occurring in all regions of the country. In this paper, hypotheses are developed and tested to help explain and understand this phenomena and the variations that exist from county to county. Countylevel data fiom the 1978 and 1987 Census of Agriculture and the 1980 and 1990 Census of Population are analyzed. Results show that counties with larger proportions of farm families living in the community included those where agriculture is less mechanized, where there are high levels of parttime farming, where the total population is smaller, and where gross farm sales are greater. Counties with the most extensive declines in their farm population included those with larger farm sales and smaller total county populations.
