--- title: "How many chickens are there in the world? about 26 billion ali" description: "about 26 billion alive at any moment How the figure is estimated, how confident it is, and what makes the scale graspable." url: https://atoneplace.net/how-many/chickens-in-the-world/ site: "At One Place" --- # How many chickens are there in the world? **How many chickens are there in the world?: about 26 billion alive at any moment** There are about three chickens per person alive. Every wild bird of every species put together adds up to roughly twice the chicken headcount but a fraction of the mass. National agriculture ministries report livestock inventories to the FAO, and the chicken total sits at roughly 26 billion birds alive at any one time — more than three per living human, and more than any other bird species on Earth by a factor of twenty. The figure understates throughput badly: because a broiler chicken is slaughtered at about six weeks, roughly 74 billion are killed each year against a standing population of 26 billion. Chickens make up around 70% of all bird biomass on the planet. ## How the figure is arrived at Livestock censuses, not sampling. Farms report inventories to national statistical offices, which report to the FAO. Standing population and annual slaughter are separate lines in the same tables — conflating them is the usual way this number is misquoted by a factor of three. ## How confident it is - **Low estimate:** 24,000,000,000 - **High estimate:** 28,000,000,000 - **Spread:** 1.2× between the bounds ## Other living things and the natural world counts - [How many people are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/people-alive-right-now/) — about 8.2 billion - [How many grains of sand are there on Earth?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/grains-of-sand-on-earth/) — roughly 7.5 quintillion on the world's beaches - [How many ants are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/ants-on-earth/) — about 20 quadrillion - [How many trees are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/trees-on-earth/) — about 3 trillion - [How many insects are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/insects-on-earth/) — about 10 quintillion - [How many species are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/species-on-earth/) — about 8.7 million - [How many people have ever lived?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/people-who-have-ever-lived/) — about 117 billion - [How many drops of water are there in the ocean?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/drops-of-water-in-the-ocean/) — about 27 septillion - [How many fish are there in the sea?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/fish-in-the-sea/) — somewhere between 3 trillion and 100 trillion — nobody knows - [How many species are endangered?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/endangered-species/) — more than 45,000 assessed as threatened - [How many bees are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/bees-in-the-world/) — roughly 2 trillion managed honey bees - [How many birds are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/birds-in-the-world/) — about 50 billion wild birds - [How many bacteria are there on Earth?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/bacteria-on-earth/) — about 5 nonillion - [How many earthquakes are there each year?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/earthquakes-a-year/) — about 20,000 located a year — around 55 a day ## Common questions ### How many chickens are there in the world? about 26 billion alive at any moment ### How is that estimated? Livestock censuses, not sampling. Farms report inventories to national statistical offices, which report to the FAO. Standing population and annual slaughter are separate lines in the same tables — conflating them is the usual way this number is misquoted by a factor of three. ## Related pages - [How many people are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/people-alive-right-now/) - [How many grains of sand are there on Earth?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/grains-of-sand-on-earth/) - [How many ants are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/ants-on-earth/) - [How many trees are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/trees-on-earth/) - [How many insects are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/insects-on-earth/) - [How many species are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/species-on-earth/) - [How many people have ever lived?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/people-who-have-ever-lived/) - [How many drops of water are there in the ocean?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/drops-of-water-in-the-ocean/) - [How many stars are there in the universe?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/stars-in-the-universe/) - [How many countries are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/countries/) - [How many bones are in the human body?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/bones-in-the-human-body/) - [How many stars are there in the Milky Way?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/stars-in-the-milky-way/) - [How many atoms are there in the universe?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/atoms-in-the-universe/) - [How many galaxies are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/galaxies-in-the-universe/) ## Sources - Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)