In 1900, about half of the world's adult population were agriculture workers, but by 2011, only about 2% of the working population were working as paid agricultural workers. In 2005, there were about 450 million men and women being paid for farm-related work, and an estimated 1.1 billion farm laborers in total, meaning only about 40% are paid.
More facts about agricultural workers:
- About 70% of all child workers work in agriculture — that's 130 million children under the age of 15.
- 90% of agricultural workers are from Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Asia has the most farm workers of any region in the world, with about 70% of the world total. A further 20% work in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- In Medieval Europe, an estimated 90% of the population worked on farms.