The National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) is a nationally representative random sample survey of hired crop workers that is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. The survey collects demographic, employment, and health information directly from agricultural workers through face-to-face interviews.
Various Federal agencies use NAWS information for program design and evaluation purposes. Agricultural workers are sampled from 12 regions, which are aggregated from 17 U.S. Department of Agriculture-designated regions. The sampling methodology is discussed at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/national-agricultural-workers-survey/methodology. For the public access data, the 12 regions have been collapsed into 6. Depending on information needs and survey resources, between 1,500 and 3,000 workers are interviewed each year. Table 1 lists the unweighted number and weighted percentage of interviews, by two-year periods, for each of the six regions.
Interviews by Region
To view current and trend data from the NAWS select from the links below:
Attention A T users. Data is presented in three formats, a bar chart, a textual data table, and a line chart. The data is best reviewed though the data table when using A T.
Data Table — Interviews by Region1
| Category | 99-00 | 01-02 | 03-04 | 05-06 | 07-08 | 09-10 | 11-12 | 13-14 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | |
| East | 952 | 13% | 859 | 13% | 877 | 13% | 490 | 13% | 513 | 14% | 478 | 13% | 386 | 13% | 525 | 12% |
| Southeast | 1,090 | 15% | 1,133 | 18% | 1,135 | 17% | 637 | 17% | 701 | 19% | 691 | 19% | 320 | 11% | 578 | 14% |
| Midwest | 986 | 14% | 871 | 13% | 954 | 14% | 570 | 15% | 387 | 10% | 357 | 10% | 393 | 13% | 538 | 13% |
| Southwest | 462 | 6% | 401 | 6% | 437 | 7% | 234 | 6% | 242 | 7% | 271 | 7% | 219 | 7% | 280 | 7% |
| Northwest | 1,017 | 14% | 848 | 13% | 884 | 13% | 510 | 14% | 458 | 12% | 529 | 14% | 524 | 17% | 675 | 16% |
| California | 2,691 | 37% | 2,360 | 36% | 2,344 | 35% | 1,305 | 35% | 1,392 | 38% | 1,365 | 37% | 1,183 | 39% | 1,639 | 39% |
| Total | 7,198 | 100% | 6,472 | 100% | 6,631 | 100% | 3,746 | 100% | 3,693 | 100% | 3,691 | 100% | 3,025 | 100% | 4,235 | 100% |
1 The East region includes the states of CT, ME, MA, NH, NY, RI, VT, DE, MD, NJ, PA, KY, NC, TN, VA, and WV. The Southeast region includes the states of FL, AL, AR, GA, LA, MS, and SC. The Midwest region includes the states of IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, MI, MN, and WI. The Southwest region includes the states of OK, TX, AZ, and MN. The Northwest region includes the states of CO, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY, OR, and WA. The California region includes California only.