Number of animals killed

Page updated: 02.10.23

The number of animals killed in the UK per year for meat, fish or shellfish

1.2 billion land animals are killed for meat in the UK.

Over one billion fish and 4.4 billion shellfish.

Land animals

Aquatic animals

References
  1. Agriculture in the UK, 2022. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/agriculture-in-the-united-kingdom-2022/chapter-8-livestock
  2. UK Food Standards Agency. Freedom of information request FOI 3238, 24 August 2023.
  3. UN FAOSTAT food and agriculture data (2021): https://www.fao.org/faostat
  4. 4. FSA. Freedom of information request: FOI 3174, 20 November 2023.
  5. Estimated numbers of individuals in average annual fish capture (FAO) by country fishing fleets (2007 to 2016): http://fishcount.org.uk/studydatascreens/2016/numbers-of-wild-fish-B0-2016.php?countrysort=United%2BKingdom%2Fsort2
  6. Estimated numbers of individuals in aquaculture production (FAO) of fish species (2017) http://fishcount.org.uk/studydatascreens2/2017/numbers-of-farmed-fish-B0-2017.php?countrysort=United%2BKingdom%2Fsort2
  7. Calculation based on tonnage by species as reported by MMO and Cefas and shellfish market sizes provided by FAO: https://animalclock.org/uk

The number of animals killed in the world each year for meat, fish or shellfish

78.7 billion land animals are killed for meat and many trillions of fish and shellfish.

Land animals

Aquatic animals

 

References
  1. FAOSTAT, food and agriculture data (2021) https://www.fao.org/faostat/en
  2. Fishcount 2019. http://fishcount.org.uk/

* Fish and shellfish counts do not include ~23 billion animals killed as bycatch (sea creatures unintentionally caught and released, often dead or fatally injured) nor ~68 billion feed fish (small fish fed to other fish farmed for human consumption).

Slaughter: how animals are killed

Every year in the UK around 1.2 billion land animals are slaughtered for human consumption. This includes over 1 billion chickens, 15 million turkeys, 14 million sheep, 2.8 million cattle, over 10 million pigs and almost 15 million sheep and lambs. In addition, almost one billion fish are killed and trillions of shellfish.

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