nature & planetanalysisOur World in Data
Over 80 billion land animals are slaughtered for meat each year and the count keeps rising
More than 80 billion land animals are killed for meat every year, according to figures from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. That number has risen steadily for about six decades as global population and incomes grew and demand for meat rose with them. Most of these animals are chickens, raised quickly in large indoor farms, so the count of individual animals dwarfs the number of people on Earth. Counting animals rather than tonnes shows the scale of farming more starkly, because small birds make up the bulk of the total.
Meat demand rises as incomes grow, and cheap meat is most efficiently produced with fast-growing breeds kept in intensive systems. Broiler chickens are turned over in many flocks a year, so farms raise huge numbers of birds. Because each chicken weighs only a few kilograms, the animal count runs far higher than the tonnage suggests.
The sheer number of animals makes farming one of the largest users of land and a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. It also shapes debates over animal welfare, since most of these animals are raised in intensive systems.
Modern broiler chickens reach slaughter weight in about six weeks, far faster than they did a century ago.
