In addition to allowing Portugal to comply with international requirements, the Agricultural Census is of unquestionable interest given that:

• Its results contribute to characterise the country’s agriculture, population structures, rural population and agricultural production methods. Such knowledge is of the essence for decision-making at different levels, such as economic, regional, social and even environmental policies.
• It is the only source of exhaustive agricultural information – collecting data on all agricultural holdings –, leading to results at very detailed geographical levels, such as parishes or municipalities. This type of information is of great interest to users, such as enterprises, regional institutions and scientific investigation institutions.
• Is makes it possible to build a poll basis (selection of groups of agricultural holdings representing specific sectoral realities, which will be the samples of such surveys) for sample agricultural surveys to be held in the next 10 years, i.e. until the next census.