Only 30% of those in agriculture are women, and only 3% of that 30% are under 40 years of age

Omissions

• The MEP rounded 32% down to 30%, which is within reasonable rounding bounds.
• The framing '3% of that 30%' is misleading—it suggests calculating 3% of the 30% (which would be 0.9% of the total), whereas the actual statistic is that 3% of farms managed by women are managed by women under 40 (which equals about 1% of all farms).
• The data refers specifically to farm managers/holders, not to all people 'in agriculture' (which would include agricultural labourers, seasonal workers, etc.).
• The European Commission launched the Women in Farming Platform on March 8, 2026, highlighting that women under 40 managing farms represent only about 1% of all EU farms.

Sources

• PrimaryEuropean Commission - Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentOnly 32% of farms in the EU are managed by women and only 3% of them are managed by women under 40.
• PrimaryEurostat - Farm labour force statisticsMain agricultural labour force by age and sex of the farm manager, farm type of the agricultural holding and NUTS 2 region