How many chickens, cows, pigs and fish does an average human consume in a year?
ad by Highbrow
You dismissed this ad.
The feedback you provide will help us show you more relevant content in the future.
Undo6 Answers
Adrien Lucas Ecoffet, Frenchman. Americanophile.
A fascinating question. I did some research on that, and it turns out that the data is fairly easily available.
You can very reasonably assume that the number of animals consumed in the world is roughly equal to the number of animals killed for food, for which we have extensive data.
The first website I found with information was that of the ALF. Yup, the dangerous terrorists that like to cuddle puppies, kittens... and piglets.
![]()
The ALF: animals, terrorism and statistics.
USDA's official number of animals killed for food
They quote the USDA with the number of animals killed for food in the US in 2008, which is indeed surprisingly elevated:
The American Meat Association gives similar numbers for 2010: The United States Meat Industry at a Glance
Assuming around 300 million american meat eaters, they get, per meat-eater per year:
A very interesting number, which tells me the answer to what I was wondering in the first place: "How many whole cows do I eat in a year?". I knew I probably ate several chicken because we all know you can eat a whole chicken in one day if you really want to. But a cow... I wasn't sure. Turns out it takes more than seven year to eat a whole cow.
In fact, let's do some calculation here. According to Slaughterhouse, which by the way largely confirms the ALF's numbers, 40 to 45% of a slaughtered animal is actually used for food. I'm going to assume this means about 500 lbs of cow meat per cow. This means a single cow can be used to make over 2,000 quarter pounders with cheese, and that a typical American eats 280 of those per year. This is a lot, but I guess it sounds about right.
This is only the USA though, how about the world?
Well, The Animal Kill Counter is a charming web page where one can learn the shocking facts about worldwide meat-eating, and in particular that people seem to prefer eating rat to eating horse, even though the latter is delicious. And what about those underrated donkeys? You guys never heard of donkey saucisson?
![]()
Donkey saucisson (in the middle).
Their data mostly comes from the Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations: FAOSTAT
I strongly advise going to the website because I certainly can't extract all of the data here, but here is the most important part of it, for the whole world in 2010:
Giving us, with our 7 billion world population:
As you can see, the US eats way more meat than the rest of the world, which should not come as a surprise.
So, what does it all mean?
Well, for starters it means this: if you think an animal's life is worth anywhere close to a human's, you should be pretty pissed off right now, because worldwide meat eating is causing way more deaths than the holocaust.
If, like me, you don't feel much empathy towards chickens, fish and especially clams, but are wondering about your effect on more advanced animals such as cows and pigs (large mammals FTW!!!), you might be happy to know that you aren't even solely responsible for the death of one of those per year. You might alternatively find it terrible that the collective behavior of people like you is causing the death of hundreds of millions of them, but really, what did you expect?
In any case, I think it is really important to know those numbers and ask yourself whether you feel comfortable with them. I know I do, but I also understand that people might feel otherwise.
You can very reasonably assume that the number of animals consumed in the world is roughly equal to the number of animals killed for food, for which we have extensive data.
The first website I found with information was that of the ALF. Yup, the dangerous terrorists that like to cuddle puppies, kittens... and piglets.
USDA's official number of animals killed for food
They quote the USDA with the number of animals killed for food in the US in 2008, which is indeed surprisingly elevated:
- Cattle: 35,507,500
- Pigs: 116,558,900
- Chickens: 9,075,261,000
- Layer hens: 69,683,000
- Broiler chickens: 9,005,578,000
- Turkeys: 271,245,000
- Fish: 6,500,000,000 (not from the USDA)
- Shellfish: 64,000,000,000 (not from the USDA)
The American Meat Association gives similar numbers for 2010: The United States Meat Industry at a Glance
Assuming around 300 million american meat eaters, they get, per meat-eater per year:
- 27.43 chickens (including 26 chickens for meat and 1.43 chicken for eggs)
- 0.91 turkeys
- 0.40 pigs
- 0.14 cows
- 22 fish
- 218 shellfish
A very interesting number, which tells me the answer to what I was wondering in the first place: "How many whole cows do I eat in a year?". I knew I probably ate several chicken because we all know you can eat a whole chicken in one day if you really want to. But a cow... I wasn't sure. Turns out it takes more than seven year to eat a whole cow.
In fact, let's do some calculation here. According to Slaughterhouse, which by the way largely confirms the ALF's numbers, 40 to 45% of a slaughtered animal is actually used for food. I'm going to assume this means about 500 lbs of cow meat per cow. This means a single cow can be used to make over 2,000 quarter pounders with cheese, and that a typical American eats 280 of those per year. This is a lot, but I guess it sounds about right.
This is only the USA though, how about the world?
Well, The Animal Kill Counter is a charming web page where one can learn the shocking facts about worldwide meat-eating, and in particular that people seem to prefer eating rat to eating horse, even though the latter is delicious. And what about those underrated donkeys? You guys never heard of donkey saucisson?
Their data mostly comes from the Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations: FAOSTAT
I strongly advise going to the website because I certainly can't extract all of the data here, but here is the most important part of it, for the whole world in 2010:
- Beef and buffalo: 328,446,884
- Poultry: 59,620,758,000
- Pork: 1,374,493,441
- Fish and marine animals; 90,000,000,000 (estimate from the ADAPTT, the activist group that created the Animal Kill Counter)
Giving us, with our 7 billion world population:
- 0.047 cows per person
- 8.517 chickens and other poultry per person
- 0.196 pigs per person
- 12.857 fish and other marine animals per person
As you can see, the US eats way more meat than the rest of the world, which should not come as a surprise.
So, what does it all mean?
Well, for starters it means this: if you think an animal's life is worth anywhere close to a human's, you should be pretty pissed off right now, because worldwide meat eating is causing way more deaths than the holocaust.
If, like me, you don't feel much empathy towards chickens, fish and especially clams, but are wondering about your effect on more advanced animals such as cows and pigs (large mammals FTW!!!), you might be happy to know that you aren't even solely responsible for the death of one of those per year. You might alternatively find it terrible that the collective behavior of people like you is causing the death of hundreds of millions of them, but really, what did you expect?
In any case, I think it is really important to know those numbers and ask yourself whether you feel comfortable with them. I know I do, but I also understand that people might feel otherwise.
You dismissed this ad.
The feedback you provide will help us show you more relevant content in the future.
Undo
Matthew Cuba, I've been known to eat.
You dismissed this ad.
The feedback you provide will help us show you more relevant content in the future.
Undo
Ravi Yedavalli, Owns & Operates Restaurants
Kenneth Ogden, works at St. Paul's Orthodox Church
Honey Rowland, I blog at HoneysLife.com about homeschooling, family life and green living with a passion for self sufficie...
