More than half the farmers in the European Union are aged over 55, a study released on Monday by the European Statistics Office (Eurostat) has revealed.

The most elderly farmers live in Portugal, where 65% of those working in agriculture are aged over 55. Also, 62% of Italian farmers, 56% of Greek farmers and 53% of Spanish farmers are aged over 55, Eurostat said. The survey found that the youngest farmers live in Finland, where 25% are aged over 55. In Germany 28% and in Austria 29% of farmers are over 55.  

Eurostat revealed that older farmers tend to work smaller plots, sometimes up to two times smaller than the land run by farmers under 45. Just under a quarter of agricultural workers are women, of all ages, who tend to have smaller farms. Only 10% of farms over 50 hectares (125 acres) in size are run by women, the study showed.

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