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State Fact Sheets: Maine
• 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 ME-Fact-Sheet.xls
PDF file ME-Fact-Sheet.pdf

Population, Income, Food Insecurity, Education, and Employment

Population
  Rural * Urban * Total
Year
    1980 504,196 620,847 1,125,043
    1990 534,811 693,117 1,227,928
    2000 538,643 736,280 1,274,923
    2010 552,638 775,723 1,328,361

More information on Maine 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 32,624 39,164 36,451
    2009 32,913 39,113 36,547
    Percent change 0.9 -0.1 0.3
 
Earnings per job (2009 dollars)
    2008 35,309 43,440 40,324
    2009 35,381 43,946 40,665
    Percent change 0.2 1.2 0.8
 
Poverty rate (percent)
    1979 15.0 11.3 13.0
    1989 12.9 9.2 10.8
    1999 12.8 9.6 10.9
    2010 (latest model-based estimates) 14.5 12.0 13.1

More information on Maine 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 9.8 13.3 15.4
    Very low food security 3.1 5.9 6.8

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) 32.8 30.2 31.3
    1990 (Census) 23.1 19.7 21.2
    2000 (Census) 16.6 13.2 14.6
    2006-2010 (ACS) 11.6 9.3 10.2
 
Percent completing high school only
    1980 (Census) 40.0 38.8 39.3
    1990 (Census) 39.5 35.2 37.1
    2000 (Census) 39.2 33.9 36.2
    2006-2010 (ACS) 38.6 32.6 35.2
 
Percent completing some college
    1980 (Census) 14.2 15.7 15.0
    1990 (Census) 21.5 24.1 23.0
    2000 (Census) 24.8 27.5 26.3
    2006-2010 (ACS) 27.6 28.4 28.0
 
Percent completing college
    1980 (Census) 13.2 15.4 14.4
    1990 (Census) 16.0 21.0 18.8
    2000 (Census) 19.4 25.4 22.9
    2006-2010 (ACS) 22.3 29.7 26.5

More information on Maine 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 316,517 509,332 825,849
    2009 307,801 495,771 803,572
 
Percent employment change
    2007-2008 -0.1 -0.2 -0.2
    2008-2009 -3.8 -3.5 -3.6
    2009-2010 -0.2 0.3 0.1
 
Unemployment rate (percent)
    2009 9.3 7.5 8.2
    2010 9.0 7.3 7.9

More information on Maine 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 10,941 11,306 11,154
 
Federal funding by purpose (function codes)
      Agriculture and natural resources 97 44 66
      Community resources 764 1,470 1,176
      Defense and space 403 2,152 1,424
      Human resources 232 142 179
      Income security 7,857 6,334 6,967
      National functions 1,588 1,165 1,341
 
Federal funding by type of payments (object codes)
      Grants 2,907 1,641 2,167
      Direct loans 182 344 277
      Guaranteed/insured loans 559 1,291 986
      Retirement/disability payments 3,949 3,497 3,685
      Other direct payments to
      individuals		 1,944 1,678 1,789
      Direct payments, not to
      individuals		 109 73 88
      Procurement contracts 621 1,797 1,307
      Salaries and wages 671 985 854

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 319 351 635
Crops (acres) 34,675 32,854 40,737
Pasture & rangeland (acres) 5,262 6,286 8,247
Total acres 39,937 39,140 48,984

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) 19,753,294 19,751,393 19,745,809
    Total farmland (acres) 1,313,066 1,369,768 1,347,566
        Percent of total land area 6.6 6.9 6.8
 
        Cropland (acres) 580,260 536,839 529,253
            Percent of total farmland 44.2 39.2 39.3
            Percent in pasture 12.6 8.9 7.0
            Percent irrigated 3.8 3.6 3.9
 
            Harvested Cropland (acres) 426,711 394,121 393,738
 
        Woodland (acres) 613,812 702,555 660,679
            Percent of total farmland 46.7 51.3 49.0
            Percent in pasture 7.1 5.5 4.0
 
        Pastureland (acres) 31,888 40,967 62,014
            Percent of total farmland 2.4 3.0 4.6
 
        Land in house lots, ponds,
        roads, wasteland, etc. (acres)		 87,106 89,407 95,620
            Percent of total farmland 6.6 6.5 7.1
 
Conservation practices
        Farmland in conservation or
        wetlands reserve programs
        (acres)		 27,418 26,259 32,812
 
Average farm size (acres) 177 190 166
 
Farms by size (percent)
            1 to 99 acres 52.8 56.1 61.6
            100 to 499 acres 39.9 35.9 32.1
            500 to 999 acres 5.3 5.5 4.1
            1000 to 1,999 acres 1.5 1.9 1.6
            2,000 or more acres 0.4 0.7 0.6
 
Farms by sales (percent)
            Less than $9,999 65.1 70.8 68.9
            $10,000 to $49,999 18.9 15.5 17.6
            $50,000 to $99,999 5.4 4.3 4.0
            $100,000 to $499,999 8.7 7.1 7.1
            More than $500,000 1.9 2.3 2.4
 
Tenure of farmers
        Full owner (farms) 5,055 5,242 6,074
            Percent of total 68.3 72.8 74.7
 
        Part owner (farms) 1,931 1,604 1,681
            Percent of total 26.1 22.3 20.7
 
        Tenant owner (farms) 418 350 381
            Percent of total 5.6 4.9 4.7
 
Farm organization
        Individuals/family, sole
        proprietorship (farms)		 6,557 6,377 6,956
            Percent of total 88.6 88.6 85.5
 
        Family-held corporations
        (farms)		 405 371 506
            Percent of total 5.5 5.2 6.2
 
        Partnerships (farms) 347 321 544
            Percent of total 4.7 4.5 6.7
 
        Non-family corporations (farms) 51 51 46
            Percent of total 0.7 0.7 0.6
 
        Others - cooperative, estate or
        trust, institutional, etc. (farms)		 44 76 84
            Percent of total 0.6 1.1 1.0
 
Characteristics of principal farm operators
        Average operator age (years) 53.8 53.7 56.4
        Percent with farming as their
         primary occupation		 44.9 47.4 43.5
        Men 6,250 5,637 6,093
        Women 1,154 1,559 2,043
 

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 8,100 8,100
 
  Thousands $
       Final crop output 319,956 324,168
+     Final animal output 249,093 291,654
+     Services and forestry 95,570 107,859
=   Final agricultural sector output 664,619 723,681
 
-      Intermediate consumption outlays 335,401 342,252
+     Net government transactions -10,930 18,027
=   Gross value added 318,288 399,456
 
-      Capital consumption 76,340 77,948
 
=   Net value added 241,948 321,508
 
-    Factor payments 121,776 121,651
         Employee compensation (total hired labor) 89,685 86,510
         Net rent received by nonoperator landlords 1,004 5,838
         Real estate and nonreal estate interest 31,087 29,303
 
=   Net farm income 120,173 199,857
 

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. Potatoes 140,034 22.8 4.6
2. Dairy products 108,438 17.7 0.3
3. Aquaculture 65,350 10.6 5.0
4. Chicken eggs 57,690 9.4 0.9
5. Greenhouse/nursery 56,750 9.2 0.4
 
All commodities 613,724   0.2
 

More information on Maine'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. Vegetables and preparations 17 53.6
2. Fruits and preparations 12 30.3
3. Other 36 17.0
4. Feeds and fodders 38 12.8
5. Poultry and products 32 5.6
 
Total export value 43 122.7
 

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. Aroostook County 23.7 146,516
2. Androscoggin County 11.1 68,445
3. Washington County 10.7 66,133
4. Kennebec County 10.3 63,521
5. Somerset County 8.7 53,404
 
State total   617,190
 

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