77 per cent of the labour input was conducted by the holders themselves, while family members, regularly and temporarily employees conducted the rest. At half of the holdings, the labour input corresponded to one full time equivalents or more, while one out of three holdings had labour input corresponding to less than half a full time equivalent each. On average it was conducted 1.1 full time equivalents per holding. This represented less than 30 per cent of all holders. For the first time, labour input in supplemental industries has been surveyed.
Supplemental industries are activities that utilise a holdings land, buildings or machinery.
The average age fell from 54 years in 1969 to 48 years in 1999. The part of holders younger than 50 years increased from 36 per cent in 1969 to 55 per cent in 1999. The part of holders 60 years and older decreased, and represented 17 per cent of all holders in 1999. Many small fields For the first time questions about fields and parcels has been surveyed. The average size of parcels and fields was in 1999 respectively 47 decares and 23 decares, but there were big differences between the counties.