Official Statistics

Agricultural facts: North East region

Updated 29 October 2026

Applies to England

Section 1: Key statistics

Figure 1.1: A map of England with the North East region highlighted

Source: Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal

The North East region comprises Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, Tees Valley and Durham.

Key statistics for the North East region

• Total Income from Farming^{[footnote 1]} in 2025 was £115 million, a decrease of 24% since 2024 (Source: Total Income from Farming for the regions of England).
• In 2025, the largest contributors to the output^{[footnote 2]} value (£879 million) were beef (£170 million), mutton, lamb and goat (£128 million), wheat (£78 million) and milk (£53 million). These commodities accounted for 49% of the output (Source: Total Income from Farming for the regions of England).
• The average farm size in 2025 was 142 hectares (Table 1.1). This is the largest average farm size of all the English regions and larger than the English average of 90 hectares.
• The predominant farm types in 2025 were grazing livestock (53% of the region’s holdings) and cereal (17% of the region’s holdings) farms (Figure 1.7).
• In 2024/25 (covering the 2024 harvest), the average Farm Business Income^{[footnote 3]} across all farm types was £74,400 per farm, which was an increase of 9.6% from 2023/24 (Figure 1.9).

Figure 1.2: Total Income from Farming from 2020 to 2025 in current prices (£ million)

Year	Total Income from Farming
2020	138
2021	198
2022	238
2023	126
2024	153
2025	115

Source: Total Income from Farming for the regions of England

Figure 1.3: Outputs and subsidies split by percentage from 2020 to 2025 (£ million)

Year	Total livestock output	Total crop output	Subsidies (excluding tax)	Diversification	Other agricultural activities
2020	351 (47%)	179 (24%)	135 (18%)	54 (7.1%)	34 (4.5%)
2021	398 (45%)	261 (30%)	127 (14%)	58 (6.6%)	37 (4.2%)
2022	444 (43%)	360 (35%)	117 (11%)	65 (6.4%)	42 (4.1%)
2023	416 (46%)	270 (30%)	112 (12%)	66 (7.2%)	43 (4.7%)
2024	475 (50%)	229 (24%)	114 (12%)	87 (9.1%)	47 (5.0%)
2025	513 (51%)	219 (22%)	136 (13%)	94 (9.3%)	53 (5.2%)

Source: Total Income from Farming for the regions of England

Figure 1.4: Inputs and costs split by percentage from 2020 to 2025 (£ million)

Year	Total intermediate consumption	Total consumption of fixed capital	Compensation of employees	Rent and other associated costs
2020	398 (66%)	130 (22%)	58 (9.6%)	18 (3.1%)
2021	451 (67%)	140 (21%)	64 (9.5%)	19 (2.9%)
2022	524 (67%)	164 (21%)	71 (9.1%)	19 (2.5%)
2023	516 (68%)	163 (21%)	66 (8.6%)	18 (2.4%)
2024	519 (67%)	166 (21%)	72 (9.3%)	18 (2.4%)
2025	571 (65%)	205 (23%)	80 (9.2%)	19 (2.2%)

Source: Total Income from Farming for the regions of England

Figure 1.5: Distribution of farms by size in 2025 (percentage of farm holdings)

Region	<5 ha	5<20 ha	20<50 ha	50<100 ha	≥100 ha	Total
North East	11%	20%	16%	17%	36%	100%
England	13%	26%	20%	17%	25%	100%

Source: Defra, June Survey

Notes:

1. “ha” means “hectares”.

2. Proportions may not sum to 100% due to rounding.

Figure 1.6: Distribution of farms by size in 2025 (percentage of farmed area)

Region	<5 ha	5<20 ha	20<50 ha	50<100 ha	≥100 ha	Total
North East	0.2%	1.6%	3.9%	8.6%	86%	100%
England	0.3%	3.2%	7.2%	13%	76%	100%

Source: Defra, June Survey

Notes:

1. “ha” means “hectares”.

2. Proportions may not sum to 100% due to rounding.

Table 1.1: Land use in 2025

Measure	North East	England
Total farmed area (thousand hectares)	585	8,946
Average farm size (hectares)	142	90
Rented (% of farmed area)	41%	32%
Arable (% of farmed area)	33%	54%
Permanent pasture (% of farmed area)	45%	34%

Source: Defra, June Survey

Notes:

1. Arable includes arable crops, uncropped arable land and temporary grass.

2. Rented land must be rented for at least one year.

Table 1.2: Crop areas in 2025 (thousand hectares)

Crop	North East	England	North East as % of England
Wheat	61	1,525	4.0%
Barley	34	742	4.5%
Oilseed rape	13	204	6.3%
Oats	9.9	162	6.1%
Potatoes	1.2	90	1.4%
Field veg	1.3	79	1.6%

Source: Defra, June Survey

Notes:

1. Crops displayed are those more predominant in the area.

2. Further data notes on crops can be found below the relevant tables in the statistical dataset for England’s regional breakdown of the structure of the agricultural industry at June.

Table 1.3: Livestock numbers in 2025 (thousand head)

Livestock	North East	England	North East as % of England
Cattle	223	4,661	4.8%
Dairy herd	13	1,040	1.2%
Beef herd	58	544	11%
Pigs	127	3,654	3.5%
Sheep	1,677	13,312	13%
Poultry	1,982	133,036	1.5%
Laying flock	561	22,193	2.5%
Table chickens	1,395	95,132	1.5%

Source: Defra, June Survey

Notes:

1. Livestock displayed are those more predominant in the area.

2. Cattle numbers relate to commercial holdings only.

3. Sheep numbers include lambs.

Figure 1.7: Distribution of farms by type in 2025 (percentage of farm holdings)

Region	Cereals	General cropping	Horticulture	Dairy	Grazing livestock	Mixed	Pigs, Poultry & Other	Total
North East	17%	14%	0.9%	1.4%	53%	9.1%	5.1%	100%
England	16%	21%	3.1%	4.8%	42%	6.7%	6.2%	100%

Source: Defra, June Survey

Notes:

1. Proportions may not sum to 100% due to rounding.

2. “Other” refers to unclassified farm types.

Figure 1.8: Distribution of farms by type in 2025 (percentage of farmed area)

Region	Cereals	General cropping	Horticulture	Dairy	Grazing livestock	Mixed	Pigs, Poultry & Other	Total
North East	22%	8.3%	0.5%	1.9%	51%	15%	1.3%	100%
England	33%	17%	1.7%	8.4%	29%	9.2%	2.1%	100%

Source: Defra, June Survey

Notes:

1. Proportions may not sum to 100% due to rounding.

2. “Other” refers to unclassified farm types.

Figure 1.9: Average Farm Business Income in 2023/24 and 2024/25 (£ per farm)

Farm type	North East	England
All farm types (2024/25)	74,400 (±27,200)	71,200 (±6,900)
Cereals (2024/25)	68,700 (±39,200)	49,700 (±15,300)
Grazing livestock (2024/25)	72,100 (±37,200)	41,000 (±5,000)
All farm types (2023/24)	67,900 (±26,600)	47,900 (±6,500)
Cereals (2023/24)	95,600 (±54,400)	41,500 (±11,700)
Grazing livestock (2023/24)	37,300 (±25,100)	20,800 (±4,300)

Source: Defra, Farm Business Survey (regional breakdown not published elsewhere)

Notes:

1. The Farm Business Survey year runs, on average, from March to February.

2. Excludes farms with less than £21,000 of standard output.

3. Farm types displayed are those more predominant in the area.

4. Lines or values in parentheses indicate the 95% confidence intervals.

5. In a given Farm Business Survey year, the sample size for some farm types can be relatively small. This means that individual farms can have a large influence on the results, and the results should be treated with caution. See the Farm Business Income by type of farm in England publication for more information.

6. Values are rounded to the nearest £100.

7. Data correct as at October 2026.

Table 1.4: Labour force in 2025 (number of people)

Measure	North East	England	North East as % of England
Total labour	9,542	279,493	3.4%
Total labour per farm	2.3	2.8	[z]
Regular workers	1,749	64,840	2.7%
Regular workers per farm	0.4	0.6	[z]
Casual workers	541	34,953	1.5%
Casual workers per farm	0.1	0.3	[z]
% full time	55%	47%	[z]
% part time	36%	36%	[z]
% casual	5.7%	13%	[z]

Source: Defra, June Survey

Notes:

1. “[z]” means “not applicable”.

2. Total labour includes farmers, partners, directors, spouses, salaried managers, regular and casual workers.

3. Casual workers are those usually employed for less than 20 weeks of the year.

4. Number of workers per farm calculations are averages based on the total number of farm holdings in the region.

5. Part time workers are those employed for less than 39 hours a week.

6. Percentage calculations for full and part time workers do not include salaried managers.

Section 2: Data notes

Figures are for commercial holdings as at June 2025 (unless stated otherwise). Commercial holdings are those with levels of farming activity above a specified threshold as detailed in this publication’s guidance note. For further information about the June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture please visit our survey notes and guidance page on GOV.UK.

“Region” in this statistical notice refers to International Territorial Level 1 (ITL1) for England. The ITL1 regions for Greater London and the South East have been combined in this statistical notice due to the fact that London has such a small farming infrastructure.

This release contains the latest data available at the time of publishing. As a result, reference periods may vary. TIFF and FBI represent data from distinct time periods: TIFF covers January to December 2025, while FBI spans March 2024 to February 2025. As these metrics reflect different reporting periods, direct comparisons between the two should be avoided.

Section 3: Other geographical breakdowns

Defra June Survey data aggregated at other geographical classifications can be found in the Structure of the agricultural industry in England and the UK at June statistical data set on GOV.UK.

England regional data for aggregate agricultural accounts (including data at ITL2 and ITL3) can be found in the Total Income from Farming for the regions of England publication on GOV.UK.

Section 4: Contact details

Team: Farming Statistics - Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Email: AUK_stats_team@defra.gov.uk

For media queries between 9am and 5pm on weekdays:

Telephone: 0330 041 6560

Email: newsdesk@defra.gov.uk

1. Total Income from Farming (TIFF) is the net income to farms once costs have been accounted for, so is calculated as “outputs & subsidies” minus “inputs & costs”. More information on aggregate agricultural accounts can be found on GOV.UK. ↩

2. Output is the total value (at market prices) of commodities produced without considering production costs or any additional income received through subsidies. More information on aggregate agricultural accounts can be found on GOV.UK. ↩

3. In simple terms, Farm Business Income (FBI) is the output generated by the farm business minus total farm costs. More information on Farm Business Income can be found on GOV.UK. ↩