How many animals are slaughtered every day? The figures by species

Every day, more than 230 million land animals are slaughtered for meat worldwide. Nine in ten are chickens.[1]Our World in Data (2026). Yearly number of animals slaughtered for meat. FAO data, downloaded on 27/10/2026. The figure comes from the FAO, the United Nations food and agriculture agency. Yet it leaves out most of the animals killed: fish. Nobody counts them one by one, but a study published in 2024 estimates that fishing catches between 3 and 6 billion of them a day.[2]Mood, A. and Brooke, P. (2024). Estimating global numbers of fishes caught from the wild annually from 2000 to 2019. Animal Welfare, 33, e6. This article traces each figure back to its source, then looks at what a donation can change.

Marie D'ovidio

Mieux Donner · Reading time: 8 min

How many land animals are slaughtered every day?

Per day, per year, per second

Every year, the FAO publishes the number of animals slaughtered for meat in each country. Our World in Data compiles these figures and makes them available to download. In 2024, the most recent year available, the total reached 86.3 billion animals across seven species: chickens, ducks, pigs, sheep, goats, turkeys and cattle.[1]Our World in Data (2026). Yearly number of animals slaughtered for meat. FAO data, downloaded on 27/10/2026.

That works out at 236 million animals a day, or 2,700 a second.

This total is a minimum: rabbits, geese, guinea fowl and horses are not included.

Species by species

Source: FAO, via Our World in Data. Per day: annual total divided by 365.25.

Worldwide, around 257 chickens are slaughtered for every head of cattle.

Why chickens make up 9 in 10 of the animals slaughtered

Weight explains much of the gap. In France, a broiler chicken yields 1.6 kg of meat on average (carcass weight), compared with 323 kg for one head of cattle.[3]Agreste (2025). Statistique agricole annuelle 2024, résultats définitifs (French annual agricultural statistics). Chiffres et données no. 16, pp. 2... It therefore takes around 200 chickens to produce as much meat as a single cow or bull.

Slaughter age matters too. In the European Union, a fast-growing chicken goes to slaughter at around 37 days old, weighing 2 to 2.5 kg, before it has even reached sexual maturity. According to EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, this is the result of genetic selection: between 1950 and 2000, the growth rate of these chickens quadrupled.[4]EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Animal Welfare (2023). Welfare of broilers on farm. EFSA Journal, 21(2), 7788, pp. 3, 23 and 126. Slower-growing breeds, such as Label Rouge chickens, must reach at least 70 to 81 days before slaughter.

This intensive model supplies 90% of broiler chickens in the European Union. The animals bear the cost: EFSA reports walking problems of genetic origin in these birds, which breeders have reduced but never eliminated.[4]EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Animal Welfare (2023). Welfare of broilers on farm. EFSA Journal, 21(2), 7788, pp. 3, 23 and 126.

What about fish?

The FAO counts fish in tonnes, never as individuals.[5]Roser, M. (2023). How many animals get slaughtered every day? Our World in Data. To work out how many there are, you have to divide the tonnage by an average weight for each species. Alison Mood and Phil Brooke (fishcount) did exactly that in two studies published in the scientific journal Animal Welfare.

Farmed fish

In 2019, between 78 and 171 billion farmed fish were killed for food. The central estimate is 124 billion, or around 340 million a day. According to the authors, farmed fish now outnumber all the farmed birds and mammals slaughtered. Their number has risen ninefold since 1990.[6]Mood, A., Lara, E., Boyland, N. K. and Brooke, P. (2023). Estimating global numbers of farmed fishes killed for food annually from 1990 to 2019. An...

Wild fish

Fishing kills even more. Between 2000 and 2019, an average of 1.1 to 2.2 trillion wild fish were caught each year, or 3 to 6 billion a day. According to the authors, more than half of them are turned into fishmeal and fish oil.[2]Mood, A. and Brooke, P. (2024). Estimating global numbers of fishes caught from the wild annually from 2000 to 2019. Animal Welfare, 33, e6.

Why these figures remain so uncertain

The upper end of the range is double the lower end. The gap comes from the average weight assumed for each species: a tonne of anchovies holds a very different number of fish from a tonne of salmon. These estimates give an order of magnitude, so we present them separately and do not add them to the figures for land animals.

How many animals are slaughtered in France?

In 2024, 943 million land animals raised in France were sent to slaughter.[3]Agreste (2025). Statistique agricole annuelle 2024, résultats définitifs (French annual agricultural statistics). Chiffres et données no. 16, pp. 2... The figure comes from Agreste, the statistics service of the French Ministry of Agriculture. That works out at 2.6 million animals a day, or around thirty a second.

Source: Agreste, French annual agricultural statistics 2024, final data. Per day: total divided by 366 (2024 was a leap year).

As elsewhere in the world, chickens dominate, with 78% of the total. This table also includes laying hens slaughtered at the end of their productive life (known as ‘spent hens’), which the FAO's global figures leave out.

What these figures leave out

The FAO data only cover animals slaughtered for meat.[5]Roser, M. (2023). How many animals get slaughtered every day? Our World in Data. Several groups of animals killed are missing.

Male chicks in the egg industry are the first example. They do not lay eggs, and laying breeds grow too slowly to be raised for meat. According to Faunalytics, 7.8 billion male chicks were killed worldwide in 2024.[8]Orzechowski, K. (2026). Nearly Eight Billion Per Year And Counting: Global Chick Culling, 2019-2024. Faunalytics. The authors add that the real figure may be slightly lower.

The global figures also leave out animals that die on the farm before reaching the abattoir, as well as laying hens slaughtered at the end of their productive life.[9]Our World in Data. Land animals slaughtered for meat (methodological notes).

Eleven times more animals than in 1961

In 1961, the world slaughtered 7.9 billion land animals for meat. By 2024, the figure had reached 86.3 billion, eleven times as many. Most of the increase comes from chickens, which rose from 6.6 to 78.5 billion over the same period.[1]Our World in Data (2026). Yearly number of animals slaughtered for meat. FAO data, downloaded on 27/10/2026.

Farmed fish follow the same curve: their number has risen ninefold since 1990.[6]Mood, A., Lara, E., Boyland, N. K. and Brooke, P. (2023). Estimating global numbers of farmed fishes killed for food annually from 1990 to 2019. An...

What can we do about these figures?

More than 99% of the animals killed for human consumption are farmed animals. Yet in the United States, only 3% of donations to animal charities go to farmed animals, while companion animals receive 95%.[10]Animal Charity Evaluators (2025). Why Farmed Animals?

A cause this underfunded often leaves proven work without resources, and a donation goes further there. The Humane League, for example, negotiates with companies to stop buying eggs from caged hens. Based on the results of its campaigns, we estimate that a donation of €0.85 spares one hen a life in a cage, on average. This is an average: the real impact varies from one campaign to the next, and not every company keeps its commitments on time.

Other charities focus on the most numerous animals. The Shrimp Welfare Project provides electrical stunners to shrimp producers, so that the animals are unconscious when they are slaughtered.[11]Shrimp Welfare Project. Humane Slaughter Initiative. We present these charities on our Animal welfare page.

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