The article presents changes that occurred in the structure of farms, including mainly family farms, in Poland and selected European countries, differing in the level of economic development and the political system, up to 1990. The first group of countries covered: Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Germany, while the second one: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. Increasing the scale of production by expanding the area of farms turned out to be insufficient. In the countries of the first group, in France and Germany, mainly Eastern (former East Germany), there were tendencies to create group farms of simplified legal form. In 2016, over 60% of land was used in these forms in France, and more than 70% of land in East Germany. In the countries of the second group, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, after the systemic changes in 1990, the form of family farms did not fully recovered. Although they held a dominant position in the number of farms, in the use of land, their share did not exceed 50%. Most of the land remained in use of group forms: agricultural cooperatives and limited liability companies, which originated from former production cooperatives and state farms. In Poland, family farms remained the dominant legal form. The interest of Polish farmers in group forms of farming is negligible. Also agricultural production cooperatives, whose share in the use of land is small, do not arouse farmers’ interest.