Countries by number of cattle

Brazil had the highest number of cattle of 192 countries in 2016, at 218,190,768 head. Niue had the lowest, at 113 head. The median was 1,497,883 head and the figure for the World was 1,470,779,878 head. Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Highest218,190,768Brazil

Lowest113Niue

Median1,497,883192 countries

World1,470,779,878History

Map of countries, 2016

Under 1M
1M to 2M
2M to 4M
4M to 12M
12M and over
No data

head, 2016. 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, 2016

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

Full ranking

Rank	Countries	2016 head	Change on 2015
1	Brazil	218,190,768	+1.4%
2	India Estimated	189,154,198	+0.6%
3	United States	91,888,000	+3.1%
4	China Estimated	63,390,530	+0.5%
5	Ethiopia	59,486,667	+2.9%
6	Argentina	52,636,778	+2.3%
7	Pakistan	42,800,000	+3.8%
8	Mexico	33,779,290	+0.8%
9	Sudan	30,632,000	+0.8%
10	Tanzania Estimated	27,715,785	+3.8%
11	Chad	26,211,379	+5.3%
12	Australia	24,971,349	-8.9%
13	Bangladesh	23,785,000	+0.6%
14	Colombia	22,555,549	+0.1%
15	Kenya	20,529,190	+9.6%
16	Nigeria	19,884,104	-1.5%
17	France	19,373,382	-0.1%
18	Russia	18,620,932	-3.3%
19	Myanmar	16,570,928	+3.6%
20	Venezuela	16,494,055	-1.8%
21	Indonesia	16,004,097	+3.8%
22	Uganda	14,368,000	+2.4%
23	Türkiye	14,080,155	+0.6%
24	Paraguay	13,858,584	-2.5%
25	South Africa	13,400,272	-2.1%
26	Niger	12,783,548	+6%
27	Germany	12,466,586	-1.3%
28	Uzbekistan	12,181,000	+10.8%
29	Uruguay	11,993,000	+0.7%
30	South Sudan	11,830,800	+0.1%
31	Canada	11,610,000	-0.3%
32	Mali	10,941,300	+6.1%
33	Madagascar	10,301,490	+0.2%
34	New Zealand	10,151,854	+1.2%
35	United Kingdom	10,033,000	+1.1%
36	Burkina Faso	9,457,934	+2%
37	Bolivia	9,119,000	+1.9%
38	Nepal	7,302,808	+0.8%
39	Ireland	7,221,200	+3.7%
40	Guinea	6,758,600	+5.5%
41	Kazakhstan	6,413,205	+3.7%
42	Spain	6,257,057	+1.2%
43	Poland	5,939,046	-0.4%
44	Italy	5,929,767	+2.6%
45	Cameroon Estimated	5,829,739	-3.9%
46	Zimbabwe	5,528,242	+0.9%
47	Peru	5,525,454	-0.5%
48	Iran Estimated	5,504,972	+20.4%
49	Vietnam	5,496,557	+2.4%
50	Afghanistan	5,234,400	-0.5%
51	Angola Estimated	5,078,430	+1.8%
52	Nicaragua Estimated	5,054,372	-0.6%
53	Egypt	5,012,217	+2.6%
54	Somalia Estimated	4,850,000	-0.8%
55	Thailand Estimated	4,700,000	-1.1%
56	Central African Republic Estimated	4,531,428	+2.1%
57	Belarus	4,298,300	-1.3%
58	Netherlands	4,294,000	-0.5%
59	Ecuador	4,127,311	+0.3%
60	Mongolia	4,080,936	+7.9%
61	Cuba	4,013,900	-0.8%
62	Japan	3,824,000	-0.9%
63	Zambia Estimated	3,793,263	-3.9%
64	Guatemala	3,768,400	+2.2%
65	Ukraine	3,750,000	-3.5%
66	Senegal Estimated	3,549,369	+1%
67	South Korea	3,381,287	+1.3%
68	Morocco	3,300,000	+0.3%
69	Namibia	3,173,767	+14.6%
70	Dominican Republic Estimated	2,994,143	-0.1%
71	Cambodia Estimated	2,881,394	+0.2%
72	Chile Estimated	2,820,774	+3.1%
73	Honduras Estimated	2,800,567	+0.3%
74	Philippines	2,553,747	+0.8%
75	Belgium	2,501,349	-0.1%
76	Azerbaijan	2,484,272	+0.7%
77	Turkmenistan	2,346,289	+1.2%
78	Benin	2,339,000	+2.6%
79	Tajikistan	2,278,072	+3.1%
80	Eritrea Estimated	2,108,957	+0.4%
81	Romania	2,092,414	+1.1%
82	Algeria	2,081,306	-3.2%
83	Austria	1,957,610	-0.2%
84	Mauritania	1,953,000	+5.6%
85	Laos	1,923,000	+5.2%
86	Mozambique	1,861,346	+10.7%
87	Iraq	1,860,887	+2.1%
88	Ghana	1,815,000	+4.7%
89	Yemen	1,697,277	-3%
90	Côte d’Ivoire Estimated	1,639,180	+2.6%
91	Portugal	1,635,000	+1.8%
92	Denmark	1,568,288	+1.1%
93	Switzerland	1,555,396	+0.1%
94	Panama	1,554,200	+0.9%
95	Kyrgyzstan	1,527,763	+2.4%
96	Botswana Estimated	1,500,000	-14%
97	Haiti Estimated	1,495,766	+1%
98	Malawi	1,470,895	+5.2%
99	Sweden	1,436,050	+0.5%
100	Czechia	1,415,658	+0.6%
101	Costa Rica Estimated	1,390,917	+6.7%
102	Rwanda	1,214,244	-10%
103	Democratic Republic of the Congo Estimated	1,044,874	+3.9%
104	Georgia	992,100	+2.3%
105	Sri Lanka	945,150	-13.1%
106	El Salvador	941,703	-7.7%
107	Finland	909,021	-0.6%
108	Serbia	892,751	-2.5%
109	Syria	883,789	-2%
110	Norway	872,145	+2.2%
111	Hungary	821,000	+2.4%
112	Burundi	769,991	-3.3%
113	Malaysia	737,827	-0.6%
114	Lithuania	722,602	-1.9%
115	Armenia	701,535	+1.9%
116	Guinea-Bissau Estimated	693,350	+1.3%
117	Tunisia	646,100	-5.8%
118	Greece	608,857	+0.4%
119	Sierra Leone Estimated	579,793	-7.2%
120	North Korea	576,000	+0.3%
121	Bulgaria	550,201	-0.5%
122	Eswatini	531,450	-10.1%
123	Israel	506,700	+1.3%
124	Lesotho	494,007	-2.8%
125	Albania	492,393	-2.3%
126	Slovenia	484,192	+3.4%
127	Gambia Estimated	465,381	-3.6%
128	Slovakia	457,586	-1.7%
129	Bosnia and Herzegovina	455,191	+0.1%
130	Togo	446,183	+1%
131	Croatia	444,613	+1%
132	Latvia	419,084	-0.7%
133	Oman	381,500	+2%
134	Saudi Arabia	361,362	+1%
135	Bhutan	353,275	+0.8%
136	Republic of the Congo Estimated	339,720	-0.3%
137	Djibouti Estimated	304,542	+0.7%
138	North Macedonia	254,768	+0.5%
139	Estonia	248,236	-6.2%
140	Puerto Rico Estimated	244,044	-2%
141	Timor-Leste Estimated	228,876	+3.2%
142	Libya Estimated	202,849	+0.7%
143	Luxembourg	201,416	+0.2%
144	Moldova	186,116	-2.7%
145	Jamaica Estimated	160,000	+0.6%
146	Taiwan	147,068	+2.6%
147	Vanuatu	115,540	-24.2%
148	Guyana Estimated	110,707	-2%
149	United Arab Emirates	108,384	-2.3%
150	Belize Estimated	97,806	+1.1%
151	Papua New Guinea Estimated	92,833	-0.1%
152	Lebanon	86,265	+3.5%
153	New Caledonia Estimated	85,961	-4%
154	Iceland	79,923	+1.6%
155	Montenegro	74,764	-1.2%
156	Jordan	74,742	+1.6%
157	Fiji	70,034	-1.6%
158	Cyprus	63,147	+7.8%
159	Comoros Estimated	50,681	+0.7%
160	Samoa Estimated	48,509	-14.1%
161	Liberia Estimated	42,932	-3%
162	Gabon Estimated	39,471	+1%
163	Suriname	35,763	-4.9%
164	Trinidad and Tobago Estimated	35,014	+0.7%
165	Qatar	27,909	+60.3%
166	Kuwait	24,246	-17.1%
167	Cape Verde	22,902	+0.2%
168	Palestine	22,820	-37.9%
169	Micronesia Estimated	17,188	+2%
170	Solomon Islands Estimated	15,053	+0.1%
171	Malta	14,356	-4.4%
172	Dominica Estimated	13,932	-0.3%
173	Tonga Estimated	11,941	+0.5%
174	Barbados Estimated	11,034	-0.1%
175	Saint Lucia Estimated	10,847	-0.9%
176	Bahrain Estimated	8,093	-9.5%
177	French Polynesia Estimated	7,685	+0.6%
178	Grenada Estimated	6,088	+1.5%
179	Equatorial Guinea Estimated	5,338	+0.5%
180	Antigua and Barbuda Estimated	5,000	-1.3%
181	Mauritius	4,533	-23.1%
182	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Estimated	3,700	-14%
183	Saint Kitts and Nevis Estimated	2,000	-9.1%
184	Faroe Islands	1,826	-2.5%
185	Hong Kong Estimated	1,575	-3.8%
186	São Tomé and Príncipe	1,362	+23.8%
187	Brunei	795	+3.2%
188	Bahamas Estimated	750	+0.3%
189	Seychelles Estimated	270	0%
190	Cook Islands Estimated	222	+0.5%
191	Singapore Estimated	189	+6.8%
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 2016 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, 2016) [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, 2016. 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=2016. 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, 2016. 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=2016.

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, 2016 [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=2016 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{food_countries_by_number_of_2016,
  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, 2016}},
  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=2016. 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, 2016
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=2016
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/cattle-population/countries?period=2016.
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 218,190,768 head in 2016, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Which country has the lowest number of cattle?

Niue, with 113 head in 2016.

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 2016 and are not ranked.

Number of cattle: other rankings

EU countries