About 305 million cattle a year
The world slaughtered about 305 million cattle for meat in 2024, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)1. That is roughly 10 cattle every second, or around 835,000 a day.
Next to the tens of billions of chickens slaughtered each year, that looks like a small number. Cattle are fewer than one in every 250 land animals killed for meat1. But each animal is enormous: a single cow or bull gives around 364 kilograms of meat, as much as about 210 chickens3. Together, beef and buffalo make up about a fifth of all the meat the world produces4.
The count covers cattle raised for beef and dairy cows slaughtered once they stop producing enough milk. It has grown slowly, from 173 million in 1961, and by only about 0.6% a year over the last decade1. At any time, around 1.58 billion cattle are alive on the world’s farms and ranches2.
China, Brazil and the United States
China slaughtered the most cattle in 2024, 45.9 million, followed closely by Brazil with 39.7 million and the United States with 32.2 million. Together they account for more than a third of the world total. Argentina (13.9 million), Pakistan (10.5 million), Mexico (8.9 million) and Australia (8.7 million) follow1.
Brazil stands out. With about 212 million people, it has less than a sixth of China’s population10, but slaughters nearly as many cattle, and its cattle industry is tied to the fate of the Amazon rainforest, as the section below explains.
Few animals, a huge footprint
Cattle are the most climate-heavy animals we eat. FAO estimates that livestock farming causes around 6.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, and cattle, raised for meat and milk, account for about 3.8 billion tonnes of that, 62% of the total5.
That's the share of the livestock sector's greenhouse gases that comes from cattle, raised for meat and milk
The reason lies in how cattle digest their food. Cows are ruminants, animals with a multi-chamber stomach that ferments grass, and that process releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Methane makes up slightly more than half of all livestock emissions5. Cattle also grow slowly, so each animal eats and emits for a long time before it is slaughtered.
Per kilogram, the gap is enormous. A kilogram of beef from a beef herd comes with around 99 kilograms of greenhouse gases, against about 10 for chicken6. Beef also needs about 15,400 cubic metres of water per tonne on average worldwide, mostly to grow the grass and feed, more than three times as much as chicken7.
Pasture is the biggest driver of tropical deforestation
Cattle need space, and a lot of it comes from cleared forest. Between 2005 and 2013, the expansion of pasture for beef was responsible for 41% of all tropical deforestation, about 2.1 million hectares a year, more than any other single product. Beef production in Brazil alone accounted for about a quarter of all tropical forest lost8.
In the Amazon, the pattern is familiar: forest is cleared and turned into cattle pasture. Soy, palm oil and other crops play their part too, but beef is the largest single driver8.
The forests being cut down or burned, much of it for cattle pasture.
Where beef is heading
Beef is growing more slowly than other meats. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and FAO expect beef consumption to rise by about 13% by 2034, while poultry grows by about 21%9. As a result, the livestock sector’s emissions are projected to rise by only about 6%, half as fast as meat production, because a growing share of the world’s meat comes from chicken rather than beef9.
That is good news for the climate, and bad news for the animal count: replacing the meat from one cow takes about 210 chickens, which is why the number of animals slaughtered keeps climbing much faster than the number of cattle. The full story is on the page for chickens slaughtered for meat.
The biggest question for cattle may be the Amazon. If Brazil manages to protect its forests while its cattle industry grows, it will show that beef and forests can coexist. If pasture keeps pushing into the rainforest, the true cost of a burger will keep including a piece of the world’s largest tropical forest. Which way it goes will depend far more on laws and their enforcement than on how much beef any one person eats.
Every land animal slaughtered for meat this year, cattle included.
Land animals slaughtered for meat
Globally, this year
The rest of what the world raises and eats is in the food section.
