The Scale of Animal Agriculture | Animal Welfare Hub

Understanding the scale of animal agriculture — the number of animals affected and the nature of their experiences — is foundational to prioritising animal welfare interventions effectively.

Key Facts

Approximately 80 billion land animals are slaughtered for food globally each year
An estimated 70-80% of these are chickens; the remainder are primarily pigs, cattle, and turkeys
Farmed fish numbers are estimated at 73-180 billion per year, with significant uncertainty
Insects farmed for food number in the trillions annually
Wild animal populations vastly exceed farmed animals; estimates suggest 100 billion birds and over a trillion fish in the wild

Welfare Considerations

The scale of animal agriculture makes it the largest source of directly caused animal welfare harm by number of individuals affected. The concentration of suffering in poultry — particularly broiler chickens — means that interventions focused on this sector have the greatest numerical impact. The emergence of insect farming at scale raises new welfare questions about potentially sentient invertebrates in numbers that dwarf all vertebrate farming. Scale considerations should inform the prioritisation of welfare interventions and advocacy efforts.

What You Can Do

Prioritise welfare improvements in the sectors with the greatest number of affected individuals
Support effective animal advocacy organisations that focus on scale and impact
Consider the numerical scale of different animal uses when making dietary and consumer choices
Engage with effective altruism frameworks for prioritising animal welfare interventions
Support research into the welfare of farmed fish and insects given their enormous numbers