Since 2020, Homesteaders of America has seen a major increase in the homesteading community. From homesteaders in apartments and townhomes using what little bit of land they have or can find, to large farms and ranches with hundreds of acres. We’re seeing it all.
Homesteading used to be the norm. In fact, it wasn’t even called homesteading for the longest time. It was just the way Americans lived—a sustainable, agrarian lifestyle. America used to be a country full of small family farms and small businesses. Now, it’s full of corporations and industrial farming. Here at Homesteaders of America (HoA) we aim to make America agrarian once again.
In 2022 we hosted some incredible events with incredible speakers and sponsors. We couldn’t have done it without our sponsors, vendors, volunteers, and staff. We’re looking forward to a brand new year of events in 2023. But that’s not what this post is about.
Towards the end of 2022, we surveyed almost 4,000 homesteaders here in America and in our HoA community. This survey gave us an extremely targeted idea of where and how folks are homesteading. We thought it would be fun to share some homesteading statistics with you!
Homesteading Statistics
We first started with wondering what the homesteading family unit looks like…
(the combined annual income for the 14.7% was $100,000-$200,000)
From there, we wanted to learn more about the personal beliefs of our HoA community and homesteaders in America…
From there, we were curious why and how folks were homesteading…
Was it because of health and a better way of living? Or was it due to politics and food security? The results were pretty incredible.
When asked the question, “what prompted you to begin homestead”, over 59% of people stated that food security is what prompted them to begin their homesteading journey. About 58% of folks said that “healthier food” was their reasoning, while 56% said a longing to live a more simplistic lifestyle was their reason. Around 52% of responses stated that government unrest and policies caused them to begin their homesteading journey.
We asked aspiring homesteaders what their biggest drawback from homesteading was—51% stated finances were an issue, and 50% stated that finding land was their biggest issue.
Vegetable gardening (66%), herb gardening (51%), and canning and preserving (44%) were the top three things that most homesteaders are currently focusing on. Orchards, beekeeping, dairy animals, and broiler chickens are top contenders on the list of things to expand on the homestead in 2023.
What State Do Most Homesteaders Live In?
There are a lot of homesteaders in America, and we were surprised to see which states so many of them came from. California (8.8%), Virginia (6.5%), Alabama (6.4%), and Arkansas (4.1%) were the states with the most homesteaders.
But perhaps the most concerning was this…
While a large portion of our homesteading community is active in voting on farm and homesteading policies, almost 8% of them are not active in voting. This doesn’t seem like much, but in crucial elections, every bit counts. And 8% is a large bit. We encourage all of you to familiarize yourself with legislation that could affect all homesteaders in 2023! Now is the time to get involved and become aware of your local and state politics and legislature, before it’s too late!
Looking forward to 2023…
We are so blessed by the fact that we get to work within this community. Watching our community expand locally, nationally, and internationally is an experience we could’ve never imagined. To be a part of something that truly makes an impact on this world is worth every single minute.
As HoA plans for the new year, we have a few things in place already.
We hope you joined us for the January “Bring It All Back ‘Home’stead Online Summit”. If you are a Premier HoA Member, you get to watch the replays with your membership, anytime! Along with the very popular 2022 Business Event!
We also hope you’ll be able to join us for our annual Homesteaders of America Conference in Front Royal, VA this October 13 and 14. You can learn more about that here.
Is it concerning that only 91.1% of your members vote? If correct, that is massively higher than the US average of 66.8% in the last presidential election, which was the highest turnout this century. So this is a very welcome result. Which begs a question: why are your members so much more likely to vote? What factors are causing homesteaders to be more politically involved?
What was the percentage of non-religiously affiliated people? The irreligious “nones”? That’s missing from the graph (maybe too small a segment). In the US it’s somewhere between 20-29% of the population, but I get the impression that your homesteading members are much more likely than the average person to be religious.
For all these stats, I’d be interested how they compare with society as a whole, because then we see how distinctive homesteaders actually are.
Good evening and hello Jason!
I find it disconcerting that you find it disconcerting that “only 91% vote”. 91% of any population that votes is fantastic and remarkable. I believe it is a reflection of these individuals personal understanding of their personal responsibility to maintain and protect their liberty and ability to live a wholesome unencumbered life.
Is it possible to see the breakdown? At least in my browser, the legends don’t match up with the pie chart and while it looks as though one should page through the legends to get more information, they are not clickable.
Interesting, but tough to glean any solid information from it all.
This is interesting data. Do you have any statistics on the ethnicity or race of your HoA community and homesteaders of America?
The human species doesn’t actually have races genetically or biologically. Race is a man-made term that has only been used to subjugate other people, turn them into slaves or take their land. The Japanese enslaved the Koreans for 50 years claiming they were an inferior race. The English took much of Ireland claiming the were an inferior race. I’d like us all very much to stop talking about race. I don’t see what point it would be to ask about ethnicity either. How many Americans of Norwegian descent are homesteading? How many Americans of Haitian descent are homesteading? I’d probably want to know why it matters before I’d ask such a question. I’m not trying to be argumentative at all. I just don’t see the point of continuing to fuel a myth about humanity. I recently found out we are about half Northern African DNA and half ACTUAL Caucasus Mountain region DNA. That, right there, would have segregated me in the 1950s in school if we had known then. What difference does it all make now? It’s wonderful to know one’s family history, but what use (or business) is it to anyone else? The only use is separation. I’d like to see an end to all that once and for all. A racist is someone who propagates the myth of race – that’s just my opinion. If you discriminate against someone else, you’re just being a terrible human, not a racist.