Studies that accurately document farmworker numbers are few. Estimates place the number of farmworkers in the United States at three to five million, including men, women, teenagers, and children who are working in the fields and packing houses.1 The farmworker population is estimated to be 84% male and 16% female.2 Male farmworkers are typically single or migrating without their families.
78% of farmworkers are foreign born; 75% are Mexican-born.3 The number of indigenous, non-Spanish speaking workers from Mexico and Central and South America is increasing, while the U.S.-born African-American farmworker population has decreased over the course of the last decade to about 1% of the total farmworker population.4 Small populations of Native American, Jamaican, Laotian, and Filipino farmworkers work in specific states and tend to return to the same place each year. Haitian, Puerto Rican, Hmong, U.S.-born Whites, and U.S.-born Latinos comprise most of the rest of the farmworker population.
The living conditions of farmworkers have often been compared to those of developing nations. The health status of farmworkers in the U.S. is among the worst when compared to other subpopulations. Farmworkers generally live in labor camps, trailer parks, or rented homes/apartments. However, when no other affordable housing is available, farmworkers sometimes resort to staying in tents, vans, or cars. Labor camps or other housing may be owned and rented by the employer or a private property owner. Although there are farmworker communities that offer comfortable, clean housing, much of the housing available to farmworkers is substandard, poorly maintained, and/or overcrowded. A lack of conveniences such as indoor plumbing and heating is also common. Often, all the farmworkers living and/or working in a labor camp will be of the same ethnic group.
1 - National Center for Farmworker Health. “Maternal and Child Health Fact Sheet,” (Buda, TX)
2 - ibid.
3 - U.S. Department of Labor. “National Agricultural Workers Survey,” (Washington, DC) 2005.
4 - U.S. Department of Labor. “National Agricultural Workers Survey,” (Washington, DC) 2000.
