Countries by number of cattle

Brazil had the highest number of cattle of 192 countries in 2017, at 215,003,578 head. Niue had the lowest, at 113 head. The median was 1,508,135 head and the figure for the World was 1,480,255,616 head. Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Highest215,003,578Brazil

Lowest113Niue

Median1,508,135192 countries

World1,480,255,616History

Map of countries, 2017

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

head, 2017. 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, 2017

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

Full ranking

Rank	Countries	2017 head	Change on 2016
1	Brazil	215,003,578	-1.5%
2	India Estimated	190,485,261	+0.7%
3	United States	93,624,600	+1.9%
4	China Estimated	61,841,430	-2.4%
5	Ethiopia	60,392,019	+1.5%
6	Argentina	54,793,181	+4.1%
7	Pakistan	44,400,000	+3.7%
8	Mexico	34,277,868	+1.5%
9	Sudan	30,926,000	+1%
10	Tanzania Estimated	28,730,362	+3.7%
11	Chad	27,603,203	+5.3%
12	Australia	26,175,521	+4.8%
13	Colombia	24,328,158	+7.9%
14	Bangladesh	23,935,000	+0.6%
15	Nigeria	20,057,095	+0.9%
16	France	18,953,568	-2.2%
17	Russia	18,346,089	-1.5%
18	Kenya	18,338,810	-10.7%
19	Myanmar	17,645,629	+6.5%
20	Indonesia	16,429,102	+2.7%
21	Venezuela	16,058,763	-2.6%
22	Türkiye	15,943,586	+13.2%
23	Uganda	14,189,000	-1.2%
24	Paraguay	13,821,526	-0.3%
25	Niger	13,550,559	+6%
26	South Africa	12,953,388	-3.3%
27	Uzbekistan	12,471,000	+2.4%
28	Germany	12,281,195	-1.5%
29	South Sudan	11,837,500	+0.1%
30	Uruguay	11,739,000	-2.1%
31	Canada	11,510,000	-0.9%
32	Mali	11,415,900	+4.3%
33	Madagascar	10,322,680	+0.2%
34	New Zealand	10,145,902	-0.1%
35	United Kingdom	10,004,000	-0.3%
36	Burkina Faso	9,647,073	+2%
37	Bolivia	9,304,000	+2%
38	Ireland	7,363,498	+2%
39	Nepal	7,347,487	+0.6%
40	Guinea	7,129,251	+5.5%
41	Kazakhstan	6,764,212	+5.5%
42	Spain	6,465,747	+3.3%
43	Poland	6,143,083	+3.4%
44	Italy	5,949,393	+0.3%
45	Cameroon Estimated	5,822,972	-0.1%
46	Vietnam	5,654,901	+2.9%
47	Peru	5,535,569	+0.2%
48	Zimbabwe	5,333,343	-3.5%
49	Nicaragua Estimated	5,028,780	-0.5%
50	Angola Estimated	4,980,370	-1.9%
51	Afghanistan	4,977,000	-4.9%
52	Iran	4,879,363	-11.4%
53	Somalia Estimated	4,800,000	-1%
54	Thailand Estimated	4,680,000	-0.4%
55	Central African Republic Estimated	4,448,224	-1.8%
56	Mongolia	4,388,455	+7.5%
57	Egypt	4,387,289	-12.5%
58	Belarus	4,361,400	+1.5%
59	Ecuador	4,190,611	+1.5%
60	Netherlands	4,030,000	-6.1%
61	Cuba	3,865,500	-3.7%
62	Guatemala Estimated	3,848,553	+2.1%
63	Japan	3,822,000	-0.1%
64	Zambia Estimated	3,718,729	-2%
65	Ukraine	3,682,300	-1.8%
66	Senegal	3,587,000	+1.1%
67	South Korea	3,428,330	+1.4%
68	Morocco	3,364,000	+1.9%
69	Dominican Republic Estimated	3,000,000	+0.2%
70	Namibia Estimated	2,951,510	-7%
71	Chile	2,890,840	+2.5%
72	Cambodia Estimated	2,871,481	-0.3%
73	Honduras Estimated	2,815,415	+0.5%
74	Philippines	2,547,614	-0.2%
75	Azerbaijan	2,476,339	-0.3%
76	Benin	2,400,000	+2.6%
77	Belgium	2,385,988	-4.6%
78	Turkmenistan	2,381,796	+1.5%
79	Tajikistan	2,317,294	+1.7%
80	Eritrea Estimated	2,113,239	+0.2%
81	Romania	2,049,700	-2%
82	Laos	1,984,000	+3.2%
83	Austria	1,954,391	-0.2%
84	Mozambique	1,951,337	+4.8%
85	Ghana	1,901,000	+4.7%
86	Iraq	1,899,370	+2.1%
87	Algeria	1,895,126	-8.9%
88	Mauritania Estimated	1,873,677	-4.1%
89	Yemen	1,671,954	-1.5%
90	Portugal	1,670,000	+2.1%
91	Côte d’Ivoire Estimated	1,666,978	+1.7%
92	Kyrgyzstan	1,575,434	+3.1%
93	Denmark	1,545,417	-1.5%
94	Switzerland	1,544,612	-0.7%
95	Panama	1,523,000	-2%
96	Malawi	1,508,299	+2.5%
97	Haiti Estimated	1,507,970	+0.8%
98	Costa Rica Estimated	1,481,399	+6.5%
99	Sweden	1,448,590	+0.9%
100	Czechia	1,421,242	+0.4%
101	Rwanda	1,166,187	-4%
102	Botswana	1,100,375	-26.6%
103	Democratic Republic of the Congo	1,080,993	+3.5%
104	Burundi	1,077,539	+39.9%
105	Sri Lanka	1,000,880	+5.9%
106	Georgia	962,700	-3%
107	Serbia	898,650	+0.7%
108	Finland	893,178	-1.7%
109	El Salvador	885,564	-6%
110	Norway	885,292	+1.5%
111	Hungary	852,000	+3.8%
112	Syria	833,130	-5.7%
113	Malaysia	703,832	-4.6%
114	Guinea-Bissau Estimated	702,202	+1.3%
115	Lithuania	694,752	-3.9%
116	Armenia	655,771	-6.5%
117	Tunisia	646,000	-0%
118	Greece	610,690	+0.3%
119	North Korea	576,000	0%
120	Bulgaria	557,866	+1.4%
121	Sierra Leone	546,881	-5.7%
122	Eswatini	511,174	-3.8%
123	Israel	509,100	+0.5%
124	Slovenia	488,598	+0.9%
125	Albania	475,215	-3.5%
126	Lesotho	461,573	-6.6%
127	Croatia	450,757	+1.4%
128	Togo	450,643	+1%
129	Slovakia	446,112	-2.5%
130	Bosnia and Herzegovina	444,522	-2.3%
131	Latvia	412,314	-1.6%
132	Gambia Estimated	396,554	-14.8%
133	Oman	389,130	+2%
134	Saudi Arabia	364,958	+1%
135	Bhutan	353,711	+0.1%
136	Republic of the Congo Estimated	338,492	-0.4%
137	Djibouti Estimated	306,601	+0.7%
138	North Macedonia	255,036	+0.1%
139	Estonia	250,900	+1.1%
140	Puerto Rico Estimated	239,056	-2%
141	Timor-Leste Estimated	227,739	-0.5%
142	Libya Estimated	204,196	+0.7%
143	Luxembourg	202,281	+0.4%
144	Moldova	182,339	-2%
145	Jamaica Estimated	160,000	0%
146	Taiwan	143,993	-2.1%
147	Guyana Estimated	107,395	-3%
148	United Arab Emirates	106,177	-2%
149	Vanuatu Estimated	100,000	-13.4%
150	Belize Estimated	99,860	+2.1%
151	Papua New Guinea Estimated	92,673	-0.2%
152	Fiji	86,463	+23.5%
153	Lebanon	85,169	-1.3%
154	New Caledonia Estimated	83,304	-3.1%
155	Iceland	80,895	+1.2%
156	Jordan	75,500	+1%
157	Montenegro	73,858	-1.2%
158	Cyprus	66,862	+5.9%
159	Comoros Estimated	50,960	+0.6%
160	Samoa Estimated	46,737	-3.7%
161	Liberia Estimated	42,639	-0.7%
162	Palestine Estimated	40,813	+78.8%
163	Gabon Estimated	39,340	-0.3%
164	Suriname	35,995	+0.6%
165	Trinidad and Tobago Estimated	35,240	+0.6%
166	Kuwait	30,630	+26.3%
167	Cape Verde	29,599	+29.2%
168	Qatar	24,958	-10.6%
169	Micronesia Estimated	16,897	-1.7%
170	Solomon Islands Estimated	15,066	+0.1%
171	Malta	14,184	-1.2%
172	Dominica Estimated	13,908	-0.2%
173	Tonga Estimated	11,975	+0.3%
174	Barbados Estimated	10,956	-0.7%
175	Saint Lucia Estimated	10,720	-1.2%
176	French Polynesia Estimated	7,600	-1.1%
177	Bahrain	6,898	-14.8%
178	Grenada Estimated	6,178	+1.5%
179	Equatorial Guinea Estimated	5,366	+0.5%
180	Antigua and Barbuda Estimated	5,000	0%
181	Mauritius	3,815	-15.8%
182	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Estimated	3,530	-4.6%
183	Saint Kitts and Nevis Estimated	2,000	0%
184	Faroe Islands	1,895	+3.8%
185	Hong Kong Estimated	1,574	-0.1%
186	São Tomé and Príncipe	1,375	+1%
187	Bahamas Estimated	751	+0.1%
188	Brunei	651	-18.1%
189	Seychelles Estimated	290	+7.4%
190	Cook Islands Estimated	223	+0.5%
191	Singapore Estimated	189	0%
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 2017 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, 2017) [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, 2017. 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=2017. 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, 2017. 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=2017.

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, 2017 [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=2017 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{food_countries_by_number_of_2017,
  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, 2017}},
  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=2017. 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, 2017
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=2017
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/cattle-population/countries?period=2017.
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 215,003,578 head in 2017, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Which country has the lowest number of cattle?

Niue, with 113 head in 2017.

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 2017 and are not ranked.

Number of cattle: other rankings

EU countries