September 28, 2023
Non-substantive Change Request
OMB No. 0535-0140: List Sampling Frame Surveys
National Agricultural Classification survey - January, 2026
Race/Ethnicity Exemption Request
OMB's Statistical Policy Directive 15 (SPD-15 dated March 29, 2024) includes a revised race/ethnicity question that allows respondents to select one or more race/ethnicity categories and select one or more detailed race/ethnicity categories for each main category selected. The revised SPD-15 includes two versions of a "minimum" category question. Agencies must request and receive an exemption from OMB if they wish to use one of the "minimum" category questions.
NASS is requesting to use the "minimum" category version without examples for each of the seven main race/ethnicity categories on the National Agricultural Classification Survey (NACS) Phase 3. The primary goal of the NACS is to identify new agricultural operators to add to NASS’ List Frame for the annual statistical program and the 2027 Census of Agriculture mailing list. NASS will provide the race/ethnicity examples in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) material accessible online. No published estimates are derived from this survey.
Including the detailed race/ethnicity subcategories in the NACS survey would significantly increase respondent burden for information that does not contribute to published estimates or updates to NASS’ List Frame. Additional questions on detailed race/ethnicity would require more time and effort from respondents, many of whom may already face time constraints.
Data from the 2022 Census of Agriculture (covering over 1.9 million farms) indicate the following racial/ethnic distribution among agricultural producers:
95.4% White
3.0% Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish
1.7% American Indian or Alaska Native
1.2% Black or African American
0.7% Asian
0.1% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
For more information, please refer to the full dataset here: 2022 Census of Agriculture Highlights.
At this time, no data are available regarding the proportion of agricultural producers identifying as Middle Eastern or North African.
The revised NACS version 1 questionnaire has been loaded to ROCIS.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Hancock, David - REE-NASS, Washington, DC |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2025-05-20 |