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Number of cattle, 1961 to 2023

Number of cattle FAO – cattle
Country/area
1961
2023
Absolute Change
Relative Change
Afghanistan2,900,0005,597,758+2,697,758+93%
Albania420,200263,385-156,815-37%
Algeria611,0001,806,339+1,195,339+196%
Angola1,325,0005,181,346+3,856,346+291%
Antigua and Barbuda5,7603,813-1,947-34%
Argentina42,520,00054,242,596+11,722,596+28%
Armenia501,862
Australia17,332,25629,878,186+12,545,930+72%
Austria2,386,7611,835,470-551,291-23%
Azerbaijan2,399,626
Bahamas3,000776-2,224-74%
Bahrain3,3006,955+3,655+111%
Bangladesh19,850,00024,856,000+5,006,000+25%
Barbados20,00010,732-9,268-46%
Belarus4,197,300
Belgium2,245,710
Belize22,129102,493+80,364+363%
Benin321,6092,528,241+2,206,632+686%
Bhutan190,000222,597+32,597+17%
Bolivia1,830,00011,099,476+9,269,476+507%
Bosnia and Herzegovina330,119
Botswana1,570,0001,000,000-570,000-36%
Brazil56,041,312238,626,448+182,585,136+326%
Brunei3,277314-2,963-90%
Bulgaria1,451,855574,300-877,555-60%
Burkina Faso1,800,00010,143,317+8,343,317+464%
Burundi430,0001,192,217+762,217+177%
Cambodia1,470,0002,611,835+1,141,835+78%
Cameroon1,750,0005,978,095+4,228,095+242%
Canada10,696,00011,295,000+599,000+6%
Cape Verde12,00029,714+17,714+148%
Central African Republic403,0004,845,784+4,442,784+1,102%
Chad4,130,00037,647,400+33,517,400+812%
Chile2,841,8002,953,310+111,510+4%
China49,400,00073,559,568+24,159,568+49%
Colombia15,679,00029,203,256+13,524,256+86%
Comoros38,60051,352+12,752+33%
Congo21,000327,769+306,769+1,461%
Cook Islands210229+19+9%
Costa Rica950,9402,196,700+1,245,760+131%
Cote d'Ivoire282,0001,867,999+1,585,999+562%
Croatia415,000
Cuba5,025,0003,391,840-1,633,160-33%
Cyprus31,00082,270+51,270+165%
Czechia1,369,590
Czechoslovakia4,387,350
Democratic Republic of Congo1,000,0001,832,468+832,468+83%
Denmark3,593,0951,434,870-2,158,225-60%
Djibouti12,000310,795+298,795+2,490%
Dominica5,50014,003+8,503+155%
Dominican Republic1,125,0003,082,735+1,957,735+174%
East Timor24,000241,365+217,365+906%
Ecuador1,550,0003,723,196+2,173,196+140%
Egypt1,523,0003,133,580+1,610,580+106%
El Salvador1,135,000746,087-388,913-34%
Equatorial Guinea2,6605,517+2,857+107%
Eritrea2,142,924
Estonia241,360
Eswatini535,376513,127-22,249-4%
Ethiopia70,904,000
Ethiopia (former)24,900,000
Faroe Islands2,9771,916-1,061-36%
Fiji112,986121,798+8,812+8%
Finland2,056,600798,640-1,257,960-61%
France19,501,00816,806,900-2,694,108-14%
French Guiana2,500
French Polynesia13,1478,500-4,647-35%
Gabon2,80039,824+37,024+1,322%
Gambia150,000278,850+128,850+86%
Georgia853,700
Germany17,542,59210,836,200-6,706,392-38%
Ghana500,0002,291,454+1,791,454+358%
Greece1,074,286622,400-451,886-42%
Grenada7,0006,664-336-5%
Guadeloupe60,000
Guatemala1,190,0004,176,956+2,986,956+251%
Guinea1,200,0008,835,187+7,635,187+636%
Guinea-Bissau230,286738,927+508,641+221%
Guyana180,000102,526-77,474-43%
Haiti740,0001,558,495+818,495+111%
Honduras1,411,2472,932,125+1,520,878+108%
Hong Kong18,0001,560-16,440-91%
Hungary1,957,000869,700-1,087,300-56%
Iceland53,37778,732+25,355+48%
India175,600,000194,478,224+18,878,224+11%
Indonesia6,356,00018,830,156+12,474,156+196%
Iran6,023,0005,487,783-535,217-9%
Iraq1,550,0002,147,569+597,569+39%
Ireland4,291,2006,525,960+2,234,760+52%
Israel226,400580,059+353,659+156%
Italy9,826,8005,999,000-3,827,800-39%
Jamaica240,000151,499-88,501-37%
Japan3,225,0004,043,000+818,000+25%
Jordan44,90079,277+34,377+77%
Kazakhstan6,616,836
Kenya7,200,00021,882,008+14,682,008+204%
Kuwait4,00033,512+29,512+738%
Kyrgyzstan1,802,299
Laos290,0002,542,707+2,252,707+777%
Latvia368,060
Lebanon93,00086,991-6,009-6%
Lesotho376,740404,351+27,611+7%
Liberia19,00044,868+25,868+136%
Libya103,970211,263+107,293+103%
Lithuania623,520
Luxembourg183,560
Madagascar8,000,0007,520,290-479,710-6%
Malawi374,7622,170,565+1,795,803+479%
Malaysia329,555726,206+396,651+120%
Mali3,513,00013,631,182+10,118,182+288%
Malta8,09014,230+6,140+76%
Martinique63,000
Mauritania2,150,0001,968,393-181,607-8%
Mauritius44,0003,400-40,600-92%
Mexico16,500,00036,619,592+20,119,592+122%
Micronesia (country)17,888
Moldova101,030
Mongolia1,905,0005,350,755+3,445,755+181%
Montenegro69,298
Morocco2,801,0002,883,867+82,867+3%
Mozambique950,0002,406,285+1,456,285+153%
Myanmar5,252,62210,800,000+5,547,378+106%
Namibia2,117,1323,600,000+1,482,868+70%
Nepal5,800,0004,750,329-1,049,671-18%
Netherlands3,622,5883,739,000+116,412+3%
New Caledonia96,00079,729-16,271-17%
New Zealand6,445,7899,538,661+3,092,872+48%
Nicaragua1,528,3005,552,814+4,024,514+263%
Niger3,490,00017,126,638+13,636,638+391%
Nigeria6,028,00020,906,596+14,878,596+247%
Niue135113-22-16%
North Korea672,000573,401-98,599-15%
North Macedonia148,693
Norway1,180,300875,600-304,700-26%
Oman60,000438,997+378,997+632%
Pakistan14,179,00055,450,000+41,271,000+291%
Palestine44,597
Panama762,9871,518,656+755,669+99%
Papua New Guinea21,08291,834+70,752+336%
Paraguay4,695,41213,526,256+8,830,844+188%
Peru3,823,7005,876,213+2,052,513+54%
Philippines1,054,7002,581,371+1,526,671+145%
Poland9,168,0006,267,460-2,900,540-32%
Portugal1,108,0001,527,720+419,720+38%
Puerto Rico457,512225,681-231,831-51%
Qatar4,00043,977+39,977+999%
Reunion40,000
Romania4,530,0001,814,700-2,715,300-60%
Russia17,489,036
Rwanda420,0001,441,712+1,021,712+243%
Saint Kitts and Nevis6,3361,739-4,597-73%
Saint Lucia9,50010,540+1,040+11%
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines6,8002,170-4,630-68%
Samoa15,73640,113+24,377+155%
Sao Tome and Principe4,2101,466-2,744-65%
Saudi Arabia110,000645,609+535,609+487%
Senegal1,960,0003,766,238+1,806,238+92%
Serbia725,408
Serbia and Montenegro
Seychelles1,400501-899-64%
Sierra Leone220,000667,117+447,117+203%
Singapore7,114178-6,936-97%
Slovakia429,720
Slovenia456,050
Solomon Islands5,00015,439+10,439+209%
Somalia3,150,0004,543,613+1,393,613+44%
South Africa12,527,00012,198,082-328,918-3%
South Korea1,097,2234,035,076+2,937,853+268%
South Sudan14,134,538
Spain3,640,3426,294,640+2,654,298+73%
Sri Lanka1,517,1911,122,370-394,821-26%
Sudan30,704,926
Sudan (former)7,000,000
Suriname36,18831,933-4,255-12%
Sweden2,574,8701,369,000-1,205,870-47%
Switzerland1,760,8001,528,595-232,205-13%
Syria421,000841,437+420,437+100%
Taiwan96,057157,177+61,120+64%
Tajikistan2,605,000
Tanzania8,063,65837,913,128+29,849,470+370%
Thailand3,542,4204,630,798+1,088,378+31%
Togo143,833468,958+325,125+226%
Tonga2,41912,170+9,751+403%
Trinidad and Tobago50,00036,003-13,997-28%
Tunisia634,000583,828-50,172-8%
Turkey12,435,00016,421,256+3,986,256+32%
Turkmenistan2,541,931
USSR75,780,000
Uganda3,618,00015,235,785+11,617,785+321%
Ukraine2,307,000
United Arab Emirates5,000109,907+104,907+2,098%
United Kingdom11,977,9989,555,426-2,422,572-20%
United States97,700,00088,841,000-8,859,000-9%
Uruguay8,792,42811,877,000+3,084,572+35%
Uzbekistan14,142,239
Vanuatu34,08291,644+57,562+169%
Venezuela6,500,00016,526,784+10,026,784+154%
Vietnam1,871,8006,331,895+4,460,095+238%
Yemen1,350,0001,877,413+527,413+39%
Yugoslavia5,702,000
Zambia1,283,0004,589,016+3,306,016+258%
Zimbabwe3,553,1005,754,985+2,201,885+62%
Other
Africa115,536,136390,389,825+274,853,689+238%
Africa (FAO)122,536,136390,389,824+267,853,688+219%
Americas (FAO)284,213,344550,267,072+266,053,728+94%
Asia318,980,559483,803,472+164,822,913+52%
Asia (FAO)319,011,552483,885,760+164,874,208+52%
Belgium-Luxembourg (FAO)2,684,120
Caribbean (FAO)7,824,4088,496,690+672,282+9%
Central America (FAO)23,500,60453,845,424+30,344,820+129%
Central Asia (FAO)27,708,304
China (FAO)49,514,05673,718,304+24,204,248+49%
Eastern Africa (FAO)62,078,520192,197,120+130,118,600+210%
Eastern Asia (FAO)56,413,28087,720,536+31,307,256+55%
Eastern Europe (FAO)97,274,20835,419,836-61,854,372-64%
Europe189,629,089111,416,568-78,212,521-41%
Europe (FAO)192,282,208111,334,296-80,947,912-42%
European Union (27)88,364,08773,745,030-14,619,057-17%
European Union (27) (FAO)91,048,20873,745,032-17,303,176-19%
High-income countries253,603,325269,742,469+16,139,144+6%
Land Locked Developing Countries (FAO)43,107,392274,684,032+231,576,640+537%
Least Developed Countries (FAO)118,358,320360,223,232+241,864,912+204%
Low Income Food Deficit Countries (FAO)103,992,096368,534,752+264,542,656+254%
Low-income countries37,384,881248,712,373+211,327,492+565%
Lower-middle-income countries274,396,953477,851,459+203,454,506+74%
Melanesia269,150400,444+131,294+49%
Micronesia (FAO)17,888
Middle Africa (FAO)8,638,67055,859,672+47,221,002+547%
Net Food Importing Developing Countries (FAO)172,292,720490,801,088+318,508,368+185%
North America139,721,011162,478,113+22,757,102+16%
Northern Africa (FAO)12,672,97039,323,804+26,650,834+210%
Northern America (FAO)108,396,000100,136,000-8,260,000-8%
Northern Europe (FAO)25,730,41621,873,084-3,857,332-15%
Oceania24,078,84239,896,304+15,817,462+66%
Oceania (FAO)24,078,84239,896,304+15,817,462+66%
Polynesia31,64761,125+29,478+93%
Small Island Developing States (FAO)8,725,13210,280,002+1,554,870+18%
South America144,492,340387,788,994+243,296,654+168%
South America (FAO)144,492,336387,788,992+243,296,656+168%
South-eastern Asia (FAO)20,201,48849,296,824+29,095,336+144%
Southern Africa (FAO)17,126,24817,715,560+589,312+3%
Southern Asia (FAO)226,059,184291,965,056+65,905,872+29%
Southern Europe (FAO)21,779,71816,865,944-4,913,774-23%
Upper-middle-income countries341,986,973579,466,633+237,479,660+69%
Western Africa (FAO)22,019,72885,293,680+63,273,952+287%
Western Asia (FAO)16,337,60027,195,012+10,857,412+66%
Western Europe (FAO)47,497,86837,175,436-10,322,432-22%
World942,122,1121,575,773,312+633,651,200+67%
Data

Number of cattle

FAO
See all data and research on:
Agricultural Production

What you should know about this indicator

Item: Cattle

Description: Cattle This subclass includes: - cattle, species of Bos, mainly bovis, taurus, indicus, grunniens, gaurus, grontalis and sondaicus, known with many different names: ox, zebu, yak, gaur, gayal, banteng, etc. This subclass does not include: - buffalo, species of Bubalus, Syncerus and bisons, species of Bison, cf. 02112

Metric: Stocks

Description: Number of animals of the species present in the country at the time of enumeration. It includes animals raised either for draft purposes or for meat, eggs and dairy production or kept for breeding. Live animals in captivity for fur or skin such as foxes, minks etc. are not included in the system although furskin trade is reported. The enumeration to be chosen, when more than one survey is taken, is the closest to the beginning of the calendar year. Livestock data are reported in number of heads (units) except for poultry, rabbits and other rodents which are reported in thousand units. Source: FAO Statistics Division.

Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
March 17, 2025
Next expected update
March 2026
Date range
1961–2023
Unit
animals

Related research and writing

A dark blue background with a lighter blue world map superimposed over it. Yellow text that says Meat and Dairy Production by Our World in Data

Meat and Dairy Production

Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Crop and livestock statistics are recorded for 278 products, covering the following categories:

  1. Crops primary: Cereals, Citrus Fruit, Fibre Crops, Fruit, Oil Crops, Oil Crops and Cakes in Oil Equivalent, Pulses, Roots and Tubers, Sugar Crops, Treenuts and Vegetables. Data are expressed in terms of area harvested, production quantity and yield. Area and production data on cereals relate to crops harvested for dry grain only. Cereal crops harvested for hay or harvested green for food, feed or silage or used for grazing are therefore excluded.

  2. Crops processed: Beer of barley; Cotton lint; Cottonseed; Margarine, short; Molasses; Oil, coconut (copra); Oil, cottonseed; Oil, groundnut; Oil, linseed; Oil, maize; Oil, olive, virgin; Oil, palm; Oil, palm kernel; Oil, rapeseed; Oil, safflower; Oil, sesame; Oil, soybean; Oil, sunflower; Palm kernels; Sugar Raw Centrifugal; Wine.

  3. Live animals: Animals live n.e.s.; Asses; Beehives; Buffaloes; Camelids, other; Camels; Cattle; Chickens; Ducks; Geese and guinea fowls; Goats; Horses; Mules; Pigeons, other birds; Pigs; Rabbits and hares; Rodents, other; Sheep; Turkeys.

  4. Livestock primary: Beeswax; Eggs (various types); Hides buffalo, fresh; Hides, cattle, fresh; Honey, natural; Meat (ass, bird nes, buffalo, camel, cattle, chicken, duck, game, goat, goose and guinea fowl, horse, mule, Meat nes, meat other camelids, Meat other rodents, pig, rabbit, sheep, turkey); Milk (buffalo, camel, cow, goat, sheep); Offals, nes; Silk-worm cocoons, reelable; Skins (goat, sheep); Snails, not sea; Wool, greasy.

  5. Livestock processed: Butter (of milk from sheep, goat, buffalo, cow); Cheese (of milk from goat, buffalo, sheep, cow milk); Cheese of skimmed cow milk; Cream fresh; Ghee (cow and buffalo milk); Lard; Milk (dry buttermilk, skimmed condensed, skimmed cow, skimmed dried, skimmed evaporated, whole condensed, whole dried, whole evaporated); Silk raw; Tallow; Whey (condensed and dry); Yoghurt.

Retrieved on
March 17, 2025
Retrieved from
http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - Production: Crops and livestock products (2025).

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All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

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  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Number of cattle”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2023) - “Agricultural Production”. Data adapted from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cattle-livestock-count-heads [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Number of cattle – FAO” [dataset]. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Production: Crops and livestock products” [original data]. Retrieved March 29, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cattle-livestock-count-heads

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