There Are 35 Billion Chickens in the World — They Outnumber Us 5 to 1

Today, while I was browsing Reddit during my free time, I came across a post that talk about how many chickens exist worldwide. Just for fun, I decided to quickly check online to verify the facts mentioned in the post.

First, take a guess: how many different chicken breeds do you think are available for your backyard flock? Maybe 10, 20, or even 30? Nope, there are actually hundreds! Checkout the list here to see and learn more about them. This surprised me too, I thought there were only like 10 to 20 at most.

Okay, now lets talk some facts!

According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there are 34.4 billion chickens in the world.

Here is the graph that shows how fast the number climbs up every year:

Image Source: World Animal Foundation

Here are some interesting facts about chicken:

The US is the leading country of chicken production, with 9.22 billion chickens The leading state in the chicken farming industry is Iowa There are 4 chickens per person on the Earth 305 million hens are used annually to lay eggs As per stats of 2019, the number of organic poultry livestock in the UK is 3.53 Million Europe has 2.35 billion chickens 15.4 billion chickens are produced by Asia Africa has 2.07 billion chickens Almost 9 billion chickens are slaughtered for their flesh

The numbers mentioned above can vary because new chickens are constantly being born, raised, and slaughtered every day. The numbers are growing rapidly because of the increase in demand.

Photo by James Wainscoat on Unsplash

Okay, enough with facts, lets see what Redditors have to say.