Part
01
of one
Part
01
Fruit Orchards Market Size - US
Based on available data from the USDA and other sources, there are approximately 23,000 fruit tree orchards in the U.S., with over 187 million fruit trees in total. There are an estimated 60 bearing acres per fruit tree farm, with an estimated 135 trees per acre. Citrus fruit trees account for nearly half of U.S. tree fruit production, and apples account for another quarter. You'll find a full explanation of my methodology and calculations below.
calculations
To determine the number of fruit orchards and fruit trees in the United States, I first looked at the USDA agricultural census. The most recent data on fruit production from this census is from 2016. The data available was not specific to the number of trees or orchards, but it did provide the total bearing acreage for each fruit type, which I've listed below for tree fruit:
2016 Bearing acreage:
TOTAL: 1,391,300
In other words, there were roughly 1,391,300 bearing acres of fruit trees in the U.S. as of 2016.
As of 2012, there were about 60 bearing acres per fruit and tree nut farm (5,641,474 bearing acres divided by 93,020 farms = 60 acres/farm). This was the most recent data available of this type from the USDA, which produces an agricultural census every five years (the 2017 census results have not yet been published). If we assume that ratio is still roughly true today, we can estimate that there are 23,188 fruit tree orchards in the U.S. (1,391,300 bearing acres / 60 acres per farm = 23,188 farms/orchards).
Data on the total number of fruit trees in production in the U.S. was not readily available from any public, recent and high-quality sources. However, I was able to triangulate an estimate using available data. I could not find the average number of fruit trees per acre overall in the U.S. However, I did learn from this source that, on average, there are 135 citrus trees per acre on Florida citrus farms. Since citrus trees represent nearly half of fruit tree bearing acreage in the U.S., based on the figures I provided above, I felt it was fair to use this figure as an overall average for fruit trees per acre in the U.S. Based on this assumption, we estimate the number of fruit trees in the country:
conclusion
To wrap up, there are approximately 23,188 fruit orchards in the U.S., with 187 million trees.