Last updated: Saturday, 5th September 2026
How many animals are killed for food each year? More than 80 billion land animals worldwide, as well as somewhere between 1.1 and 2.2 trillion fish. Those are the most recent global estimates, and the land-animal figure has risen almost every year for six decades.
This post breaks those numbers down by animal, and by year, day, and second, so you can see the scale for what it is.
A quick note on the data. The land-animal counts come from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s FAOSTAT database, compiled by Our World in Data and Faunalytics.
Fish are counted differently, by estimated weight rather than by head, so those figures are ranges rather than exact counts. Where a number is an estimate, we’ve included within.
Animals that die per year for food
| Animal | Per year | Per day | Per second |
| Chickens | ~78.5 billion | ~215 million | ~2,490 |
| Ducks | ~4.2 billion | ~11.5 million | ~130 |
| Pigs | ~1.5 billion | ~4.1 million | ~48 |
| Sheep | ~704 million | ~1.9 million | ~22 |
| Goats | ~564 million | ~1.5 million | ~18 |
| Turkeys | ~504 million | ~1.4 million | ~16 |
| Cattle | ~305 million | ~836,000 | ~10 |
| All land animals | ~87.9 billion | ~241 million | ~2,800 |
| Fish (wild + farmed) | 1.1–2.2 trillion+ | — | — |
Land-animal figures: FAOSTAT “Producing Animals/Slaughtered,” 2024 data. Per-day = year ÷ 365; per-second = year ÷ 31,536,000. Fish are counted by tonnage/weight, not headcount, so daily/per-second rates aren’t included there.
How many chickens are killed for food each year?
Around 73.8 billion chickens are slaughtered for meat each year. That’s roughly 202 million a day, or about 2,300 every second.
Chickens make up the overwhelming majority of the total, close to 91% of all land animals slaughtered for food. It reflects how much chicken the world eats, and the demand for specific cuts on top of that, a wing here, a breast there.
That headline number leaves something out, though. It counts birds raised for meat, not the male chicks hatched in the egg industry.
How many male chicks are killed for the egg industry?
Around 7 billion male chicks are culled each year worldwide, roughly 330 million of them in the EU. Because they can’t lay and aren’t the breeds raised for meat, the egg industry has long treated day-old males as surplus, which means they’re not even killed for food, they’re killed because they’re not useful.
This is one figure that’s actually starting to fall. France and Germany banned the practice from 2022, and Italy’s ban takes effect in 2027. In-ovo sexing, which identifies the sex of the embryo before it hatches, is replacing culling in those markets.
It’s a genuine, recent shift, and worth knowing. It could mean the difference in billions of unnecessary male chick deaths on a yearly basis.
How many cows are killed each year?
Around 332 million cattle are slaughtered for food each year, which works out at roughly 909,000 a day, or about 10 every second.
It’s a smaller figure than the poultry numbers, partly because a single cow yields far more meat than a single bird, and partly because plenty of people limit red meat.
Do dairy cows get slaughtered too?
Yes, most dairy cows are generally sent to slaughter for meat once their milk yield drops, rather than living out a natural lifespan, so the dairy and beef industries overlap more than people assume. Male calves born to dairy cows, which can’t produce milk, are often raised for veal or beef or culled young.
If you would like to contribute less towards the dairy industry, our guide to the best dairy alternatives is a good place to start.
How many pigs are killed each year?
Around 1.4 billion pigs are slaughtered each year for pork, ham, bacon, sausages, and cured meats like salami and chorizo. That’s roughly 3.8 million a day, or about 44 every second, and the global figure has more than tripled over the past half-century as demand has grown.
Plenty of people don’t eat pork at all, whether for dietary or religious reasons, yet the total keeps climbing.
If you’re looking to cut back, there’s a good range of plant-based sausages and deli slices around these days, which could make for an easy swap.
How many turkeys are killed each year?
Somewhere in the region of 600 million turkeys are killed for food each year, , give or take 50 million, with roundups tending to report turkeys and geese together. A large share of that total lands in just a few weeks of the calendar.
How many turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving?
Around 45 million turkeys are eaten in the US for Thanksgiving alone, on a single day. It’s one of the clearest examples of how a tradition drives demand.
How many turkeys are killed for Christmas?
Millions more are killed for Christmas, with the UK accounting for 2 million a year. Turkeys are eaten year-round too, so the holidays are a spike on top of an existing baseline rather than carrying it all.
How many fish are killed each year?
This is where the numbers stop being countable in the ordinary sense. An estimated 1.1 to 2.2 trillion wild fish are caught each year, plus somewhere between 124 and 133 billion farmed finfish and several hundred billion farmed crustaceans on top.
In this case, fish aren’t counted as individuals. Catches are recorded by weight, and researchers work back to an estimated number with a calculation based on the average size of each species.
So the honest answer is a wide band, and even the lower end runs into the trillions, far more than every land animal combined, for perspective.
How many ducks are killed each year?
Around 4.3 billion ducks are killed for food each year, or roughly 11.8 million a day. That makes them the second most slaughtered bird after chickens, well ahead of turkeys and geese.
How many goats are killed each year?
Around 501 million goats are slaughtered for food annually. Goat is one of the most widely eaten meats globally, even though it’s less common on Western plates, which is why the figure often surprises people in the UK and US.
How many sheep are killed each year?
Between 550 and 704 million sheep are slaughtered for food each year, roughly 1.7 million a day. Much of that is lamb, meaning animals killed young, typically between four and 12 months old (worth confirming against a livestock source). The “lamb” and “mutton” on a menu are the same species at different ages, just as an FYI.
Where does all this meat get eaten?
In short, most of it is chicken, and most of it is eaten out of the home.
The clearest way to segment these numbers is by species. Chickens alone account for around 89-91% of all land animals slaughtered, so poultry demand, more than anything else, drives the total.
Splitting it by where the meat is eaten is harder, but still gives useful insight.
US: Roughly 47% of the chicken Americans eat is consumed away from home, in restaurants and other foodservice outlets, according to USDA survey data (2013 to 2016).
UK: Around 36% of the processed meat eaten in Britain is eaten out of the home, per the Food Foundation’s 2025 analysis.
Both are “out-of-home” figures, which is broader than fast food specifically, and they measure consumption rather than animals killed, so more of a clue towards pattern than actual split.
How much meat is wasted each year?
The uncomfortable truth is, a lot of these animals are being killed for food that never gets eaten.
Globally, the world wastes around 1.05 billion tonnes of food (according to a recent 2022 study), close to a fifth of all the food available to consumers, according to the UN’s 2024 Food Waste Index; Households account for about 60% of that, food service industry makes up roughly 28%, and retail the rest.
Meat is only a slice of that total, but it’s telling, because every wasted portion of meat represents an animal raised and slaughtered for nothing.
How many animals are killed for food in total?
Adding it up: more than 80 billion land animals a year, and 83 billion by the most recent 2022 count, plus fish in the trillions counted separately. That’s roughly 221 million land animals a day, or 2,600 a second.
To put it in perspective, that is around 10 times the human population, killed and replaced every year. The fish total, at the low end alone, is larger, still. The scale is driven by one thing: how much meat and fish the world chooses to eat.
Do animals die for plant-based food too?
It’s a fair question worth answering with real numbers.
Growing crops causes wild-animal deaths through ploughing, harvesting, pesticides, and lost habitat.
Putting a figure on it is not simple, a 2018 study by Bob Fischer and Andy Lamey, pulled together earlier estimates “suggesting as many as 7.3 billion field animals a year could die” in US crop production. Many more of these deaths are made up of insects, as this study suggests.
But here’s the part that reframes the whole question: Most crops aren’t grown to feed people directly. Animal agriculture uses around 83% of the world’s farmland, and a large share of what we grow, soya especially, goes to feed livestock rather than humans.
So even the crop deaths that do happen are driven substantially by meat production, not in spite of it. Not only that, but studies estimate only 37% of crops are used directly in food production, whilst the remainder go toward industry, processing and exports.
Per calorie or per gram of protein, a plant-based diet is linked to fewer animal deaths and far less land use, because you skip the step of growing crops to feed to livestock.
Quick answers: How many animals die for food
How many animals are killed for food each year?
More than 80 billion land animals worldwide, plus an estimated 1.1 to 2.2 trillion fish.
How many chickens are killed each year?
Around 73.8 billion, roughly 202 million a day, or about 2,300 every second.
How many cows are killed each year?
Around 332 million, roughly 909,000 a day.
Do dairy cows get slaughtered?
Yes. Dairy cows are typically slaughtered for meat once their milk yield falls, and male dairy calves are usually raised for meat or culled young.
Do animals die for plant-based food too?
Some animals do die due to crop farming. One estimate put it as high as 7.3 billion a year in US crops, though the researchers say that’s likely overstated, since animal farming uses around 83% of farmland and most crop consumption, so it accounts for far more.
What the numbers actually tell us
The figures are striking on their own, and an eye opener if you’re seeing them for the first time. More than 80 billion land animals and trillions of fish a year is a scale that’s genuinely hard to picture, let alone discuss it.
What you do with this information is entirely your call. If it does make you want to do your bit to reduce consumption, you can take it one step at a time.
How about that Meat-free Monday? One meat-free day a week can make a significant difference, and makes for an easy place to start, with studies showing one meat free day a week can influence you to do it more often, reducing your overall meat consumption.
Our easy vegan swaps guide is a good place to start. And if a number here made you pause, pass it on to someone who needs to know.
