The number of persons living on U.S. farms averaged 8,864,000 in the 12-month period centered on April 1975. In continuation of a long-time downward trend, the 1975 farm population was 850,000-or 8.7 percent-less than in 1970. For the 1970-75 period, the average net loss to the farm population through migration or reclassification of residence from farm to nonfarm was about 200,000 annually. The average rate of this net loss was 2.1 percent a year. Both the number of net outmovers and the rate of outmovement for 1970-75 were substantially less than in other recent periods. The South, with a 16-percent decline since 1970, continued its heavy loss of farm population. The farm population in the West is estimated to have increased 5 percent since 1970; it declined in other regions.