Agricultural employment : inventory and comparison of French data sources

Various data sources can be used to study the French agricultural employment, such as databases provided by the Agricultural Social Mutuality (MSA) and by the National Institute of statistics and Economic Studies (Insee). But each data source has her own approach and field. For instance, in the Farm Structure Survey, the agricultural working population is defined as all the people working in a farm. However, Insee data sources such as the population census don't select according to the same criteria : only the main activity is taken into account. As for the files of the Agricultural Social Mutuality, they register all the contributors, even those who don’t work strictly in the agricultural sector (such as foresters, fishermen, …). The estimated number of farmers therefore depends on the source. The aim of this document is to present all the data sources on agricultural employment, their specificities and their fields. When possible, we also compared the figures given by each source. Finally, as an example, a more precise comparison between two sources was carried out: we compared the number of farmers resulting from the Farm Structure Survey to the one provided by the MSA file of self-employed persons.