Countries by number of cattle

Brazil had the highest number of cattle of 192 countries in 2015, at 215,220,508 head. Niue had the lowest, at 113 head. The median was 1,487,056 head and the figure for the World was 1,451,329,498 head. Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Highest215,220,508Brazil

Lowest113Niue

Median1,487,056192 countries

World1,451,329,498History

Map of countries, 2015

Under 1M
1M to 2M
2M to 4M
4M to 11M
11M and over
No data

head, 2015. Hatched areas have no value for this period. Source: FAOSTAT, Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain).

Top 40 countries, 2015

head. Source: FAOSTAT, Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	Countries	2015 head	Change on 2014
1	Brazil	215,220,508	+1.3%
2	India Estimated	188,075,193	+0.6%
3	United States	89,143,000	+0.7%
4	China Estimated	63,050,960	+0.2%
5	Ethiopia	57,829,953	+2%
6	Argentina	51,429,848	-0.4%
7	Pakistan	41,241,000	+3.8%
8	Mexico	33,502,623	+1.7%
9	Sudan	30,376,000	+0.6%
10	Australia	27,412,872	-5.8%
11	Tanzania	26,713,644	+3.5%
12	Chad	24,892,098	+5.3%
13	Bangladesh	23,636,000	+0.6%
14	Colombia	22,527,783	-0.2%
15	Nigeria	20,184,763	+2.2%
16	France	19,386,522	+0.7%
17	Russia	19,263,687	-1.5%
18	Kenya	18,728,076	+2.6%
19	Venezuela	16,795,158	-0.1%
20	Myanmar	15,993,276	+3.3%
21	Indonesia	15,419,718	+4.7%
22	Paraguay	14,216,256	-1.7%
23	Uganda	14,031,000	+3%
24	Türkiye	13,994,071	-1.6%
25	South Africa	13,694,582	-1.6%
26	Germany	12,635,456	-0.8%
27	Niger	12,059,951	+6%
28	Uruguay	11,911,000	+0.7%
29	South Sudan	11,823,700	+0.1%
30	Canada	11,640,000	-3.4%
31	Uzbekistan	10,995,200	+3.7%
32	Mali	10,313,357	+3%
33	Madagascar	10,280,300	+0.8%
34	New Zealand	10,032,763	-3.2%
35	United Kingdom	9,919,000	+0.8%
36	Burkina Faso	9,272,510	+2%
37	Bolivia	8,948,602	+1.7%
38	Nepal	7,241,743	-0%
39	Ireland	6,963,500	+0.5%
40	Guinea	6,407,100	+5.5%
41	Kazakhstan	6,183,852	+5.7%
42	Spain	6,182,908	+1.7%
43	Cameroon Estimated	6,066,463	+2%
44	Poland	5,960,693	+0.7%
45	Italy	5,781,348	+0.4%
46	Peru	5,553,470	-0.4%
47	Zimbabwe	5,477,338	+12.5%
48	Vietnam	5,367,200	+2.5%
49	Afghanistan	5,261,000	-1.6%
50	Nicaragua	5,086,766	+5.6%
51	Angola Estimated	4,990,113	+1.9%
52	Somalia Estimated	4,889,370	-0.2%
53	Egypt	4,883,196	+2.5%
54	Thailand Estimated	4,750,000	-3%
55	Iran	4,572,681	+8.1%
56	Central African Republic Estimated	4,438,477	+2%
57	Belarus	4,356,500	-0.2%
58	Netherlands	4,315,000	+3.5%
59	Ecuador	4,115,213	-10.1%
60	Cuba	4,045,900	-2.1%
61	Zambia	3,946,348	-3.4%
62	Ukraine	3,884,000	-11.7%
63	Japan	3,860,000	-2.6%
64	Mongolia	3,780,402	+10.7%
65	Guatemala	3,686,600	+2.8%
66	Senegal Estimated	3,515,471	+1%
67	South Korea	3,337,309	+4.6%
68	Morocco	3,291,050	+1.6%
69	Dominican Republic Estimated	2,995,877	-0.1%
70	Cambodia Estimated	2,875,000	0%
71	Honduras Estimated	2,791,726	+0.5%
72	Namibia	2,770,545	-3.9%
73	Chile	2,735,857	-5.5%
74	Philippines	2,534,243	+0.9%
75	Belgium	2,503,262	+1.1%
76	Azerbaijan	2,465,997	+0.9%
77	Turkmenistan Estimated	2,318,429	+1.4%
78	Benin	2,280,000	+2.6%
79	Tajikistan	2,209,171	+3.8%
80	Algeria	2,149,549	+4.9%
81	Eritrea Estimated	2,099,522	+0.5%
82	Romania	2,068,888	+2.3%
83	Austria	1,961,201	+0.1%
84	Mauritania	1,849,000	-0.1%
85	Laos	1,828,000	+3.5%
86	Iraq	1,823,184	-37.1%
87	Yemen	1,748,989	-1.1%
88	Botswana	1,744,166	+9.2%
89	Ghana	1,734,000	+4.6%
90	Mozambique	1,682,017	-6.5%
91	Portugal	1,606,000	+3.7%
92	Côte d’Ivoire Estimated	1,598,135	+0.7%
93	Switzerland	1,554,319	-0.5%
94	Denmark	1,551,948	-0.7%
95	Panama	1,540,500	-5.7%
96	Kyrgyzstan	1,492,517	+2.3%
97	Haiti Estimated	1,481,595	+0.8%
98	Sweden	1,428,400	-4.3%
99	Czechia	1,407,132	+2.4%
100	Malawi	1,398,376	+6.2%
101	Rwanda	1,349,792	+15.8%
102	Costa Rica Estimated	1,303,854	+0.2%
103	Sri Lanka	1,088,110	-1.5%
104	El Salvador	1,020,791	-2%
105	Democratic Republic of the Congo	1,005,385	+5.9%
106	Georgia	970,000	-21.1%
107	Serbia	915,641	-0.5%
108	Finland	914,717	0%
109	Syria	901,975	-17.3%
110	Norway	853,327	+1.6%
111	Hungary	802,000	+2.6%
112	Burundi	796,530	-3.6%
113	Malaysia	742,338	-0.1%
114	Lithuania	736,612	+3.2%
115	Armenia	688,553	+1.6%
116	Tunisia	685,800	+2.2%
117	Guinea-Bissau Estimated	684,238	+1.4%
118	Sierra Leone Estimated	625,000	-10.7%
119	Greece	606,705	+1.1%
120	Eswatini	591,454	-4.6%
121	North Korea Estimated	574,125	-0.2%
122	Bulgaria	552,807	-4%
123	Lesotho	508,344	-5.9%
124	Albania	504,200	+0.9%
125	Israel	500,000	+8.5%
126	Gambia Estimated	482,905	+0.8%
127	Slovenia	468,253	+1.7%
128	Slovakia	465,543	-0.5%
129	Bosnia and Herzegovina	454,810	+2.4%
130	Togo	441,764	+1%
131	Croatia	440,092	-0.2%
132	Latvia	422,019	+3.8%
133	Oman	374,020	+2%
134	Saudi Arabia	357,801	+1%
135	Bhutan	350,563	+0.7%
136	Republic of the Congo Estimated	340,577	+0.2%
137	Djibouti Estimated	302,416	+0.8%
138	Estonia	264,700	+1.3%
139	North Macedonia	253,442	+4.9%
140	Puerto Rico Estimated	249,124	-2%
141	Timor-Leste	221,767	+25.8%
142	Libya Estimated	201,376	+0.7%
143	Luxembourg	201,036	+1.1%
144	Moldova	191,214	+1.2%
145	Jamaica Estimated	159,100	-5.3%
146	Vanuatu Estimated	152,403	-12.9%
147	Taiwan	143,302	-1.1%
148	Guyana Estimated	112,987	-0%
149	United Arab Emirates	110,929	+23.9%
150	Belize Estimated	96,785	+2%
151	Papua New Guinea Estimated	92,905	-0.1%
152	New Caledonia Estimated	89,562	-3.7%
153	Lebanon	83,351	-11.3%
154	Iceland	78,628	+5.6%
155	Montenegro	75,671	-1.2%
156	Jordan	73,600	+6%
157	Fiji	71,194	-1%
158	Cyprus	58,559	-3.8%
159	Samoa	56,504	+15%
160	Comoros Estimated	50,307	+0.6%
161	Liberia Estimated	44,244	+2.9%
162	Gabon Estimated	39,081	+1.5%
163	Suriname	37,620	+4.1%
164	Palestine	36,730	-13.4%
165	Trinidad and Tobago Estimated	34,781	-0.6%
166	Kuwait	29,263	+7.2%
167	Cape Verde	22,852	+0.2%
168	Qatar	17,412	-21.8%
169	Micronesia Estimated	16,853	+2.1%
170	Solomon Islands Estimated	15,035	+0.2%
171	Malta	15,020	+0.9%
172	Dominica Estimated	13,968	-0.2%
173	Tonga Estimated	11,881	+0.7%
174	Barbados Estimated	11,050	-0.5%
175	Saint Lucia Estimated	10,942	-0.5%
176	Bahrain Estimated	8,945	-14.8%
177	French Polynesia Estimated	7,641	+4.7%
178	Grenada Estimated	6,000	+1.5%
179	Mauritius	5,898	-2.4%
180	Equatorial Guinea Estimated	5,313	+0.2%
181	Antigua and Barbuda Estimated	5,066	+1.3%
182	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Estimated	4,300	+12.9%
183	Saint Kitts and Nevis Estimated	2,200	+10%
184	Faroe Islands	1,872	-2.3%
185	Hong Kong Estimated	1,638	-3.6%
186	São Tomé and Príncipe Estimated	1,100	-8.3%
187	Brunei	770	+2.7%
188	Bahamas Estimated	748	-0.3%
189	Seychelles Estimated	270	-10%
190	Cook Islands Estimated	221	+0.5%
191	Singapore Estimated	177	-11.5%
192	Niue Estimated	113	0%

Other periods

About this ranking

Number of cattle (domestic cattle, not buffaloes) present in the country, as published in FAOSTAT's crops and livestock products domain. FAO asks for the count on one day of the year, usually the census or survey date, so the reference day differs between countries.

FAO fills gaps in national reporting with its own estimates and imputations, which are marked as estimated, and revises past years when countries send new figures.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the countries are compared on one definition. 4 countries with data in other periods have no value for 2015 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

FAO. 2025. FAOSTAT: Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111). Accessed on 2026-10-12. https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/Production_Crops_Livestock_E_All_Data_%28Normalized%29.zip Licence: CC-BY-4.0. FAO does not endorse Invokely or this use of the data.

Citation styles

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APA 7

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2025). Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111) (Countries by number of cattle, 2015) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/Production_Crops_Livestock_E_All_Data_%28Normalized%29.zip

MLA 9

Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111), Countries by number of cattle, 2015. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 31 Dec. 2025, https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/Production_Crops_Livestock_E_All_Data_%28Normalized%29.zip. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/cattle-population/countries?period=2015. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2025. Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111). Countries by number of cattle, 2015. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/Production_Crops_Livestock_E_All_Data_%28Normalized%29.zip. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/cattle-population/countries?period=2015.

Harvard

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111), Countries by number of cattle, 2015 [Dataset]. Available at: https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/Production_Crops_Livestock_E_All_Data_%28Normalized%29.zip, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/cattle-population/countries?period=2015 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{food_countries_by_number_of_2015,
  author = {{Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations}},
  title = {{Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111): Countries by number of cattle, 2015}},
  year = {2025},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/Production_Crops_Livestock_E_All_Data_%28Normalized%29.zip},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/cattle-population/countries?period=2015. Publisher attribution: FAO. 2025. FAOSTAT: Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111). Accessed on 2026-10-12. https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/Production\_Crops\_Livestock\_E\_All\_Data\_\%28Normalized\%29.zip Licence: CC-BY-4.0. FAO does not endorse Invokely or this use of the data.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
TI  - Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111): Countries by number of cattle, 2015
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
PB  - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/Production_Crops_Livestock_E_All_Data_%28Normalized%29.zip
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/cattle-population/countries?period=2015
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/cattle-population/countries?period=2015.
N1  - Publisher attribution: FAO. 2025. FAOSTAT: Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111). Accessed on 2026-10-12. https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/Production_Crops_Livestock_E_All_Data_%28Normalized%29.zip Licence: CC-BY-4.0. FAO does not endorse Invokely or this use of the data.
ER  -

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Questions

Which country has the highest number of cattle?

Brazil, with 215,220,508 head in 2015, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Which country has the lowest number of cattle?

Niue, with 113 head in 2015.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Cattle, stocks, head (item 866, element 5111). Retrieved 2026-10-12. 4 countries have no value for 2015 and are not ranked.

Number of cattle: other rankings

EU countries