Farmers and farm managers are the largest single group of owners in the twelve North Central States; they own 49 percent of all private noncorporate holdings and over 55 percent of land in farms, according to a 1978 ESCS survey of privately owned farm and ranch land, other rural land, and urban land. Sole proprietors and husbands and wives own 81.5 percent of all farmland, 1 percent of all ownership units own 26 percent of all privately held land, and about 72 percent of land is held by people over 45 years old. The report also classes lan downer ship by race, sex, method and date of acquisition, residence and education.