Results from the Scottish Agricultural Census: June 2025

Final results from the 2025 June Agricultural Census on land use, crop areas, livestock and the number of people working on agricultural holdings.

Module results on irrigation methods are also included within this publication.

First published: 30 October 2025.


Most holdings have one person or related individuals legally responsible for them

Not all responses to the agricultural census provide legal responsibility details. Information in this section comes from 23,400 holdings.  

Where legal responsibility is known, nearly all holdings (96%) had either one person or two or more related people with legal responsibility for the holding. These holdings accounted for 74% of agricultural land. Land that an organisation had legal responsibility for made up 3.5% of holdings and covered 24% of the total agricultural land area. 

Figure 16: Percentage of holdings and land area of holdings by legal responsibility, 2025.

Stacked bar chart showing the percentage of holdings and land area of holdings by legal responsibility in 2025. Most holdings were managed by one person or two or more related individuals. Organisations accounted for a smaller share of holdings but a larger share of land area. Unrelated individuals represented a small portion of both holdings and land area.

Contact

email - agric.stats@gov.scot

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