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State Fact Sheets: Louisiana

Population, Income, Food Insecurity, Education, and Employment
Federal Funds
Organic Agriculture
Farm Characteristics
Farm Financial Indicators
Top Commodities, Exports, and Counties
About the State Fact Sheets

Data updated January 17, 2012

Data Download
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Excel file LA-Fact-Sheet.xls
PDF file LA-Fact-Sheet.pdf

Population, Income, Food Insecurity, Education, and Employment

Population
  Rural * Urban * Total
Year
    1980 1,117,072 3,089,044 4,206,116
    1990 1,091,103 3,128,870 4,219,973
    2000 1,128,309 3,340,667 4,468,976
    2010 1,152,634 3,380,738 4,533,372

More information on Louisiana population
County-level Population Data
Rural Population and Migration Briefing Room
• Contact John Cromartie, 202-694-5421.

Income
  Rural * Urban * Total
Per-capita income (2009 dollars)
    2008 31,027 40,366 37,990
    2009 31,286 39,778 37,632
    Percent change 0.8 -1.5 -0.9
 
Earnings per job (2009 dollars)
    2008 39,462 48,141 46,394
    2009 39,545 48,187 46,448
    Percent change 0.2 0.1 0.1
 
Poverty rate (percent)
    1979 24.0 16.7 18.6
    1989 29.7 21.5 23.6
    1999 24.2 18.1 19.6
    2010 (latest model-based estimates) 22.4 17.6 18.8

More information on Louisiana poverty rates
County-level Poverty Data
Rural Income, Poverty, and Welfare Briefing Room
• See important notes about decennial and model-based intercensal poverty estimates
• Contact Tracey Farrigan, 202-694-5489

Household-level Food Insecurity and Very Low Food Security
  2002-04 Avg. 2005-07 Avg. 2008-10 Avg.
Percent of households
    Food insecure 11.8 11.7 12.6
    Very low food security 2.6 4.6 4.0

More information on Food Insecurity
Food Security in the United States Briefing Room
Definitions of Food Insecurity and Very Low Food Security
• Comparisons of prevalence rates of food insecurity between States must take account of the margins of error, which are sizeable for many States. Margins of error are published along with State prevalence rates in each year’s Household Food Security in the United States report.
• Contact Alisha Coleman-Jensen, 202-694-5456.

Education (Persons 25 and older)
  Rural * Urban * Total
Percent not completing high school
    1980 (Census) 52.5 38.7 42.3
    1990 (Census) 40.5 28.7 31.7
    2000 (Census) 32.6 22.7 25.2
    2006-2010 (ACS) 24.8 17.0 19.0
 
Percent completing high school only
    1980 (Census) 29.0 31.6 30.9
    1990 (Census) 34.1 30.8 31.7
    2000 (Census) 36.5 31.1 32.4
    2006-2010 (ACS) 39.8 33.0 34.8
 
Percent completing some college
    1980 (Census) 9.0 14.2 12.8
    1990 (Census) 15.2 22.3 20.5
    2000 (Census) 18.8 25.3 23.7
    2006-2010 (ACS) 21.7 26.5 25.3
 
Percent completing college
    1980 (Census) 9.3 15.5 13.9
    1990 (Census) 10.2 18.1 16.1
    2000 (Census) 12.1 20.9 18.7
    2006-2010 (ACS) 13.6 23.4 20.9

More information on Louisiana education
County-level Education Data
Rural Labor and Education Briefing Room
• Contact Alexander Marré, 202-694-5338

Employment
  Rural * Urban * Total
Total number of jobs
    2008 517,979 2,055,285 2,573,264
    2009 511,758 2,031,753 2,543,511
 
Percent employment change
    2007-2008 0.8 2.0 1.7
    2008-2009 -3.4 -2.3 -2.6
    2009-2010 0.3 0.1 0.1
 
Unemployment rate (percent)
    2009 7.8 6.2 6.6
    2010 8.7 7.1 7.5

More information on Louisiana unemployment rates
County-level Unemployment and Median Household Income Data
Rural Labor and Education Briefing Room
• Contact Lorin Kusmin, 202-694-5429

Federal Funds, FY 2010
  Rural * Urban * Total
Federal funding, dollars per person
   All Federal funds 11,480 10,830 10,995
 
Federal funding by purpose (function codes)
      Agriculture and natural resources 354 58 133
      Community resources 752 1,307 1,166
      Defense and space 1,945 1,936 1,938
      Human resources 336 236 262
      Income security 7,572 6,047 6,434
      National functions 522 1,247 1,063
 
Federal funding by type of payments (object codes)
      Grants 2,473 1,576 1,803
      Direct loans 322 239 260
      Guaranteed/insured loans 591 1,140 1,001
      Retirement/disability payments 3,086 2,790 2,865
      Other direct payments to
      individuals
2,518 2,249 2,317
      Direct payments, not to
      individuals
243 65 110
      Procurement contracts 637 1,933 1,604
      Salaries and wages 1,611 839 1,035

Total does not include Statewide funds undistributed at the county level.

More information on Federal Funds
Program Function and Object Code Definitions
Federal Funds and Development Policy Briefing Room
Federal Funds Data
• Contact Richard Reeder, 202-694-5360


* The terms “rural” and “urban” here refer to data for nonmetro and metro areas, a county-level classification defined by the Office of Management and Budget. We use the June 2003 version of nonmetro and metro areas because it reflects conditions at the beginning of the decade. See Measuring Rurality: What is Rural? for a discussion of differences between metro-nonmetro categories and the Census Bureau’s rural-urban classification.
 
More information on socioeconomic conditions
Rural Emphasis Page
• Contact Tim Parker, 202-694-5435.


Organic Agriculture

  2006 2007 2008
Number of certified operations 14 13 15
Crops (acres) 587 643 661
Pasture & rangeland (acres) 536 514 514
Total acres 1,123 1,157 1,175

More information on organic agriculture
Organic Production Data
Organic Agriculture Briefing Room
• Contact Catherine Greene, 202-694-5541.


Farm Characteristics

1997, 2002 and 2007 Census of Agriculture
 
  1997 2002 2007
Approximate total land area (acres) 27,882,310 27,879,582 27,668,285
    Total farmland (acres) 8,367,843 7,830,664 8,109,975
        Percent of total land area 30.0 28.1 29.3
 
        Cropland (acres) 5,567,627 5,071,537 4,691,344
            Percent of total farmland 66.5 64.8 57.8
            Percent in pasture 16.3 16.6 13.5
            Percent irrigated 17.1 18.3 19.4
 
            Harvested Cropland (acres) 4,022,664 3,332,146 3,342,048
 
        Woodland (acres) 1,068,660 1,017,937 1,188,689
            Percent of total farmland 12.8 13.0 14.7
            Percent in pasture 32.0 29.5 17.8
 
        Pastureland (acres) 1,096,526 1,194,963 1,544,080
            Percent of total farmland 13.1 15.3 19.0
 
        Land in house lots, ponds,
        roads, wasteland, etc. (acres)
635,030 546,227 685,862
            Percent of total farmland 7.6 7.0 8.5
 
Conservation practices
        Farmland in conservation or
        wetlands reserve programs
        (acres)
182,379 273,839 524,824
 
Average farm size (acres) 275 286 269
 
Farms by size (percent)
            1 to 99 acres 57.0 57.7 60.9
            100 to 499 acres 29.1 28.4 27.7
            500 to 999 acres 7.0 6.7 5.0
            1000 to 1,999 acres 4.6 4.6 3.7
            2,000 or more acres 2.4 2.7 2.7
 
Farms by sales (percent)
            Less than $9,999 65.2 66.5 69.3
            $10,000 to $49,999 15.9 16.3 16.4
            $50,000 to $99,999 4.4 4.7 3.6
            $100,000 to $499,999 10.9 9.0 6.0
            More than $500,000 3.7 3.5 4.7
 
Tenure of farmers
        Full owner (farms) 17,769 17,184 20,472
            Percent of total 58.4 62.7 68.0
 
        Part owner (farms) 8,753 7,358 7,024
            Percent of total 28.8 26.8 23.3
 
        Tenant owner (farms) 3,903 2,871 2,610
            Percent of total 12.8 10.5 8.7
 
Farm organization
        Individuals/family, sole
        proprietorship (farms)
26,736 24,915 25,716
            Percent of total 87.9 90.9 85.4
 
        Family-held corporations
        (farms)
1,214 952 1,639
            Percent of total 4.0 3.5 5.4
 
        Partnerships (farms) 2,141 1,323 2,395
            Percent of total 7.0 4.8 8.0
 
        Non-family corporations (farms) 120 89 136
            Percent of total 0.4 0.3 0.5
 
        Others - cooperative, estate or
        trust, institutional, etc. (farms)
214 134 220
            Percent of total 0.7 0.5 0.7
 
Characteristics of principal farm operators
        Average operator age (years) 53.5 55.1 57.3
        Percent with farming as their
         primary occupation
43.8 54.0 41.8
        Men 27,908 24,866 26,248
        Women 2,517 2,547 3,858
 

More information on farm characteristics
Census of Agriculture
• Contact NASS Customer Service, 1-800-727-9540.


Farm Financial Indicators

Farm income and value added data
  2009 2010
 
Number of farms 30,000 30,000
 
  Thousands $
       Final crop output 1,808,690 1,959,121
+     Final animal output 833,625 939,941
+     Services and forestry 358,756 349,097
=   Final agricultural sector output 3,001,071 3,248,159
 
-      Intermediate consumption outlays 1,544,035 1,713,936
+     Net government transactions 181,224 143,049
=   Gross value added 1,638,260 1,677,272
 
-      Capital consumption 309,132 315,538
 
=   Net value added 1,329,128 1,361,734
 
-    Factor payments 501,390 533,586
         Employee compensation (total hired labor) 176,314 178,880
         Net rent received by nonoperator landlords 174,765 211,269
         Real estate and nonreal estate interest 150,311 143,437
 
=   Net farm income 827,738 828,149
 

More information on farm income
Farm Income Data
Farm Income and Costs Briefing Room
• Contact Timothy Park, 202-694-5446.

Farm balance sheet
 
• Estimation of State-level Balance Sheets has been suspended. See the Farm Balance Sheet data page for more information.
 


Top Commodities, Exports, and Counties

Top 5 agriculture commodities, 2010
  Value of receipts
thousand $
Percent of state total
farm receipts
Percent of US value
1. Soybeans 426,693 14.7 1.3
2. Cane for sugar 381,179 13.1 38.2
3. Rice 356,387 12.2 11.8
4. Corn 304,391 10.5 0.7
5. Aquaculture 219,899 7.6 16.7
 
All commodities 2,912,553   0.9
 

More information on Louisiana's top agriculture commodities
Leading commodities by cash receipts in Excel.
Other cash receipts data.
• Contact Ted Covey, 202-694-5344.

Top 5 agriculture exports, estimates, FY 2010
  Rank among states Value
million $
1. Rice 3 333.0
2. Soybeans and products 17 277.4
3. Cotton and linters 11 115.5
4. Feed grains and products 20 75.9
5. Feeds and fodders 30 34.5
 
Total export value 30 912.7
 

More information on agricultural exports
State Export Data
Agricultural Trade Briefing Room
• Contact Nora Brooks, 202-694-5211.

Top 5 counties in agricultural sales 2007
  Percent of state total receipts Thousands $
1. Union Parish 5.1 133,773
2. Lincoln Parish 4.6 119,727
3. Franklin Parish 4.1 106,258
4. Sabine Parish 4.0 105,344
5. East Carroll Parish 3.7 96,037
 
State total   2,617,981
 

More information on agricultural sales
Census of Agriculture
• Contact NASS Customer Service, 1-800-727-9540.




Data Sources

Prepared by Economic Research Service, USDA, Washington, DC.

For more information, contact: Tim Parker
Web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
Updated date: January 17, 2012