The U.S. farm population continued its long-term downward trend during 1977, indicating that the population growth characteristic of nonmetropolitan counties since 1970 has not extended to population living on farms. In the 12-month period centered on April 1977, the farm population was 7,806,000, or 450,000 fewer farm residents (5.4%) than in 1976 and 1.9 million fewer (19.6%) than in 1970. However, the 3.3% annual rate of net outmigration (average amount of net migration and reclassification as a percentage of average farm population) for 1970-77 was below the 5-6% rates of the fifties and sixties. Among the country's four geographic regions, the South continued to be the heaviest loser; the West has shown some stability in farm population since 1970. In 1977, the North Central states had almost half the total U.S. farm population (46%), followed by the South (34%), West (12%), and Northeast (7%). As to components of farm population change (births, deaths, net change from migration and residence reclassification), in the April 1976-77 period, 27,000 more births than deaths partly offset the total of 474,000 persons lost through migration or reclassification. For the 1970-77 period, average net loss through migration and reclassification to nonfarm was 301,000 annually, with an average of 28,000 more farm births than deaths. (RS)