Based on the current definition for farm population (all persons living in rural territory on places which in the reporting year had, or normally would have had, sales of agricultural products of $1,000 or more), an average of 6,241,000 persons lived on farms in the United States in 1979, a drop of 2.8% from the 1978 figures. Whites constituted 94%, Blacks 2.5%, and persons of Spanish origin 1.9% of all farm residents. Blacks experienced higher rates of decline than Whites. The farm population, with a median age of 34 years, had a lower proportion of young adults (20 to 34 years) and a higher proportion of middle-aged persons (35-64) than the nonfarm population. The fertility of farm women continued to be higher than that of nonfarm women. There was no statistically significant difference in the metropolitan-nonmetropolitan distribution of the farm population by race and Spanish origin. Of all farm residents 14 years old and over, 64% were in the labor force or were seeking work. The total number of persons employed solely or primarily in agriculture averaged 3,467,000. The dominance of self-employed (three-fifths) as the major class of work pertained solely to farm males. Only about 2% of the labor force living on farms was unemployed as compared with a 6% rate for the nonfarm population, but the median income of farm families ($15,339) continued to lag behind that of nonfarm families. (CM)