Policy Topics

Subtopics

Agricultural Productivity in the United States: Increased productivity is the main contributor to growth in U.S. agriculture. This data set provides estimates of productivity growth in the U.S. farm sector over the period 1948-2004, and estimates of the growth and relative levels of productivity across the individual States for the 1960-2004 period.
5/13/2008 2:00:00 PM
Agricultural Research Funding in the Public and Private Sector: These time series data for public and private funding of agricultural research and development cover the years 1970-98 (private) and 1970-2001 (public). Data are available either as nominal figures or corrected for inflation.
10/27/2003
Commodity Costs and Returns Data: USDA has estimated annual production costs and returns and published accounts for major field crop and livestock enterprises since 1975. Cost and return estimates are reported for the U.S. and major production regions for corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, grain sorghum, rice, peanuts, oats, barley, sugarbeets, tobacco, milk, hogs, and cow-calf. These cost and return accounts are historical accounts based on the actual costs incurred by producers during each year.
12/12/2007
Confined Animal and Manure Nutrient Data System: This system provides state and National data about confined animal numbers and associated manure nutrients. These data are based on analysis of the data collected for the 1982, 1987, 1992, and 1997 Censuses of Agriculture done by the Economic Research Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service in conjunction with the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
8/22/2001
County Typology Codes: To provide policy-relevant information about diverse county conditions to policymakers, public officials, and researchers, ERS has developed a new set of county-level typology codes that captures differences in economic and social characteristics. This release revises the preliminary codes released in May 2004.
The 2004 County Typology Codes were developed for all 3,141 counties, county equivalents, and independent cities in the United States. Their primary function is to help differentiate among nonmetro counties, but metro counties are also coded to facilitate comparisons.
The 2004 County Typology codes classify all U.S. counties according to six non-overlapping categories of economic dependence and seven overlapping categories of policy-relevant themes. The economic types include farming, mining, manufacturing, services, Federal/State government, and unspecialized counties. The policy types include housing stress, low-education, low-employment, persistent poverty, population loss, nonmetro recreation, and retirement destination.
A preliminary version of these codes was released on the ERS website in May 2004. This is the final version and includes revised farming-dependent counties, along with five economic types that have not previously been released. More information on the revised farming-dependent counties can be found here http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/rurality/typology/. The policy types remain unchanged from the May 2004 release.
8/27/2004 12:00:00 PM
Farm and Farm-related Employment: Estimates of farm and farm-related employment are derived by combining farm employment data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis with an enhanced file of the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns. These estimates, which are rich in geographic detail, provide valuable information about the importance of agriculture across the country.
3/31/2005 1:00:00 PM
Farm Program Acres: This data product allows you to download and map county-level farm program and planted acreage data. Users can manipulate the data to illustrate the share of commodity base acreage planted to nine major program crops (corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, wheat, rice, cotton, peanuts, and oilseeds).
7/21/2008 2:00:00 PM
Food Security Status File: Survey of Program Dynamics: The Survey of Program Dynamics (SPD) Food Security Status Files contain summary food security status information for households interviewed in the SPD in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002. Each file matches to the corresponding year's SPD data file at the household level. The SPD data files contain information on demographic and social characteristics for each member of interviewed households as well as data on all sources of income and assistance received from public assistance programs.
1/23/2006 3:50:00 PM
Foodborne Illness Cost Calculator: This interactive web-based tool allows users to estimate the cost of illness due to specific foodborne pathogens. The updated ERS cost estimate for Shiga-toxin producing E. coli O157 (STEC O157) was recently added to the Calculator in spring, 2006. Calculator users can now review and change the assumptions behind the ERS cost estimates for either STEC O157 or Salmonella. The assumptions that can be modified include the annual number of cases, the distribution of cases by severity, the use or costs of medical care, the amount or value of time lost from work, the costs of premature death, and the disutility costs for nonfatal cases. Users can also update the cost estimate for inflation for any year from 1997 to 2007.
7/30/2008
Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United States (FATUS): The Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United States (FATUS) data page provides U.S. agricultural exports and imports, volume and value, by country and by commodity. Updated monthly or annually.
ERS93002 9/12/2007
Profiles of America: Profiles of America: Demographic Data and Graphic Builder, uses interactive tools to create maps, tables, and charts that display information on demographic trends, industrial structure, and the economic well-being of rural and urban communities. The program allows users to analyze rural and urban differences at the national, State, and county levels and provides useful information to community leaders, Federal officials, and researchers.
11/2/2004 10:30:00 AM
Rural Definitions: Most Americans share a common image of rural—open countryside and small towns at some distance from large urban centers—but not a common consensus on where and how to draw the line between rural and urban. Dozens of definitions are currently used by federal and State agencies, researchers, and policy makers. The ERS Rural Definition data product allows users to make comparisons among nine representative rural definitions, for the U.S. as a whole and for individual States. We include socioeconomic indicators (population, education, poverty, etc.) that are commonly used to highlight differences between urban and rural areas. Three display options are available: national and state indicator tables; state-level maps; and an interactive mapping utility.
9/4/2007 10:15:00 AM
Trends in Extension Staffing: Data page for information on level and allocation of Extension staffing by State, delivered through spreadsheets.
10/7/2002 12:00:00 PM
Urban Influence Codes: ERS announces the release of the 2003 Urban Influence Codes, which classify U.S. counties by size of each county’s largest town and nearness to metropolitan and micropolitan areas. This scheme allows researchers to break county data down into smaller residential groups than metro, micro, and nonmetro. This is particularly useful for the analysis of trends in nonmetro areas that are related to population density and metro influence. The codes divide the Nation's 3,141 counties, county equivalents, and independent cities into 12 groups.
11/17/2003 9:00:00 AM $35.00
USDA Section 502 Housing Survey Data: The data available here are from the only nationwide survey of participants in USDA's Section 502 Single Family Direct Loan Housing Program. The survey was designed to provide information on the characteristics of the low-income rural residents who benefit from this program. All respondents who answered the survey questions were borrowers on a current Section 502 single-family direct loan taken from Rural Development administrative records. Data reported here are based on the responses of the borrower participating in the telephone interview. No distinctions are made between a primary or secondary borrower.
2/11/2002 9:00:00 AM
Western Irrigated Agriculture: This data product summarizes the farm-structural characteristics for irrigated farms in the 17 Western States based on USDA's 1998 Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey.
5/28/2004 10:30:00 AM

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