Source record
FAOSTAT: Crops and livestock products — producing animals / slaughtered
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2024). FAOSTAT database. FAO.
- Last reviewed
- Reviewer
- Editorial placeholder
- Status
- sample
Sample data. The figures and sources on this page are demonstration records showing how evidence will be presented. They are approximate and have not yet been through our review process. Read about how we will verify evidence.
Key findings
- Around 80 billion land animals are slaughtered for meat each year, the large majority of them chickens.
Record
- Source type
- Government Statistics
- Study type
- Census
- Topics
- Scale
- Geography
- Global, by country
- Funding & conflicts
- Not recorded.
- Source quality
- Strong evidenceOfficial international statistics, the standard reference for this figure.
Limitations
- Relies on national reporting of varying quality; fish are counted by weight, not by individual animal.
Statistics we use from this source
- 80billionLand animals slaughtered for meat each year
- 74billion per yearChickens
- 1.4billion per yearPigs
- 1.1billion per yearSheep & goats
- 0.3billion per yearCattle
Claims this source supports
AnimalsStrong evidence
Around 80 billion land animals are slaughtered for food each year worldwide, the large majority of them chickens.
About ten land animals per person per year, most of them chickens. Fish are not counted individually, but likely add far more.