Today agriculture (including fishing) is a tiny sector, employing under 2% of the workforce. Even in 1841 it employed only 20% of workers. Employment in the sector dropped as a proportion of all workers to 12% in 1881 and 5% in 1951, but the actual numbers fell much more slowly, from 1.2m in 1841 to 1m. in 1951. Mechanisation of farms in the 1950s and 1960s led to a much more rapid decline, so there were only about half a million workers left in 1971.

Over this period the geographical distribution of agricultural workers changed little. It only changed in the late 20th century as agriculture became less important and some of these areas saw rapid population growth to support other industries.

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