Dutch Farmers Earn €88,200 a Year on Average - and Are Often Among the Country's Richest

Farmers often complain they barely have anything left at the end of the year, but fresh figures tell a different story: the average agricultural household in the Netherlands had 88,200 euros a year to spend in 2022 - nearly 72 percent more than the 51,200 euros of an average Dutch household, and well above the 71,800 euros of other self-employed households.

That does not mean every dairy, arable or pig farmer lives comfortably every year; returns vary enormously by sector and season. But as a group, farming households are strikingly often among the wealthiest Dutch.

Only part of the income comes from the farm itself: on average 64 percent comes from the business, 27 percent from paid work (for example a partner) and 9 percent from benefits or pensions.

Look at wealth as well as income and farmers stand out even more. In 2022, 69 percent of agricultural households belonged to the top 20 percent of the Netherlands when income and assets are combined, against 37 percent for all self-employed households. That wealth is rarely cash: it sits in farmland, buildings, machinery, livestock and production rights - a farm with dozens of hectares can easily be worth millions on paper, often against sizeable loans and running costs.

The median business capital in agriculture, forestry and fisheries was 586,600 euros in 2024; for self-employed people whose business is their main income, it was 677,000 euros.

Poverty is rare: only 0.7 percent of agricultural households lived in poverty in 2022, versus 4 percent of all Dutch households, and long-term poverty affected just 0.1 percent. Farmers can certainly be squeezed by low prices, high interest rates and expensive feed, fertiliser and energy - but on income and assets combined, the average farmer is clearly not among the country's most vulnerable.