The Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO) conducted a general agricultural census (ÁMÖ) in 2010, where enterprises and households performing agricultural activity were surveyed. According to the preliminary results, the number of private farms fell significantly in the last ten years. The present study concentrates on these farms and their labour force, drawing attention to a specific factor, the settlement size and the characteristics related to it. The total population, the agricultural labour force as well as the private farms are not evenly distributed in Hungary by settlement size, specific disparities can be seen in this respect. The study aims to demonstrate  not only these differences, but also several other specialities, for instance, the changing role of agricultural activity, the education level and age of the farm labour force on the basis of ÁMÖ 2000 and 2010 databases.