Countries by number of cattle

Brazil had the highest number of cattle of 192 countries in 2020, at 217,836,282 head. Niue had the lowest, at 113 head. The median was 1,510,312 head and the figure for the World was 1,526,880,528 head. Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Highest217,836,282Brazil

Lowest113Niue

Median1,510,312192 countries

World1,526,880,528History

Map of countries, 2020

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

head, 2020. 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, 2020

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

Full ranking

Rank	Countries	2020 head	Change on 2019
1	Brazil	217,836,282	+1.3%
2	India Estimated	194,939,240	+0.8%
3	United States	93,793,300	-1.1%
4	Ethiopia	70,291,776	+7.6%
5	China Estimated	66,934,420	+4.6%
6	Argentina	54,460,799	-1%
7	Pakistan	49,624,000	+3.8%
8	Mexico	35,653,619	+1.2%
9	Tanzania Estimated	33,615,796	+4.7%
10	Chad	32,237,209	+5.3%
11	Sudan	31,757,266	+0.9%
12	Colombia	27,973,390	+2.7%
13	Kenya	26,765,935	+28.2%
14	Bangladesh	24,391,000	+0.8%
15	Australia	23,503,238	-4.9%
16	Nigeria	20,585,153	+0.9%
17	Russia	18,126,003	-0.1%
18	Türkiye	17,965,482	+1.6%
19	France	17,815,670	-2%
20	Indonesia	17,440,393	+3%
21	Niger	16,138,935	+6%
22	Venezuela	16,055,171	+0.3%
23	Uganda	14,918,000	+0.9%
24	Paraguay	14,026,143	+1.6%
25	South Sudan	13,784,065	+1.5%
26	Uzbekistan	13,154,200	+1.6%
27	Mali	12,474,462	+3%
28	South Africa	12,297,621	-2.3%
29	Canada	11,540,000	-1.1%
30	Germany	11,301,860	-2.9%
31	Uruguay	11,182,000	-2%
32	Myanmar	10,305,196	+2.2%
33	Bolivia	10,103,767	+3.7%
34	New Zealand	10,082,788	-0.7%
35	United Kingdom	9,615,000	-1.3%
36	Guinea	8,367,838	+5.5%
37	Madagascar Estimated	7,963,494	-8.5%
38	Burkina Faso	7,607,000	-24.2%
39	Nepal	7,458,885	+1%
40	Spain	6,636,430	+0.5%
41	Ireland	6,529,440	-0.5%
42	Kazakhstan Estimated	6,486,000	+3.8%
43	Italy	6,400,040	+0.4%
44	Poland	6,278,900	+0.3%
45	Vietnam	6,230,519	+2.8%
46	Cameroon Estimated	5,808,691	+0.1%
47	Peru	5,636,388	+0.7%
48	Afghanistan Estimated	5,370,129	+2.8%
49	Nicaragua Estimated	5,330,233	+2.3%
50	Iran	5,323,974	-2.2%
51	Zimbabwe	5,195,154	+2.7%
52	Angola Estimated	4,924,541	-0%
53	Somalia Estimated	4,778,805	-0.4%
54	Central African Republic Estimated	4,772,942	+1.7%
55	Mongolia	4,732,010	-0.4%
56	Thailand Estimated	4,557,716	-0.9%
57	Ecuador	4,335,924	+0.7%
58	Belarus	4,287,700	-0.2%
59	Guatemala Estimated	4,055,342	+1.7%
60	Japan	3,907,000	+1.9%
61	Zambia	3,814,438	-2.9%
62	South Korea	3,804,976	+4.4%
63	Cuba	3,752,400	-1.7%
64	Netherlands	3,691,000	-0.8%
65	Senegal	3,658,199	+1.5%
66	Chile Estimated	3,199,969	+3%
67	Morocco	3,166,900	-4.8%
68	Ukraine	3,092,000	-7.2%
69	Dominican Republic Estimated	3,009,176	-0%
70	Honduras Estimated	2,861,440	+0.5%
71	Cambodia Estimated	2,829,718	-0.4%
72	Egypt	2,745,000	-2.3%
73	Philippines	2,541,959	+0.3%
74	Namibia	2,516,554	-10.3%
75	Azerbaijan	2,504,048	+0.8%
76	Turkmenistan	2,498,583	+4%
77	Tajikistan	2,392,000	+1.3%
78	Belgium	2,335,440	-1.6%
79	Laos	2,188,000	+3.7%
80	Mozambique	2,183,857	+3.5%
81	Eritrea Estimated	2,122,934	+0.1%
82	Ghana	2,109,000	+8.5%
83	Iraq	2,019,660	+2.1%
84	Mauritania Estimated	1,952,155	+1.8%
85	Malawi	1,946,033	+4.2%
86	Benin	1,937,604	-23.3%
87	Romania	1,875,200	-2.5%
88	Austria	1,855,430	-1.3%
89	Yemen	1,835,801	+1%
90	Côte d’Ivoire	1,750,915	+1.6%
91	Algeria	1,740,183	-2.6%
92	Kyrgyzstan	1,715,776	+2.1%
93	Portugal	1,691,320	+1%
94	Rwanda	1,608,499	+14.4%
95	Haiti Estimated	1,528,747	-0.1%
96	Switzerland	1,515,123	-0.6%
97	Panama	1,505,500	+0.5%
98	Denmark	1,500,000	0%
99	Costa Rica	1,427,793	-12.6%
100	Sweden	1,390,960	-1%
101	Democratic Republic of the Congo	1,343,889	+10.9%
102	Czechia	1,340,040	-2%
103	Sri Lanka	1,103,570	+1.6%
104	Botswana Estimated	1,000,000	+7%
105	Hungary	932,900	+2.6%
106	Serbia	886,127	-1.3%
107	Syria	884,572	+12.2%
108	Norway	882,961	+1%
109	Georgia	869,500	-1.1%
110	Burundi	838,991	-24.6%
111	Finland	835,380	-0.6%
112	El Salvador	754,172	+7.9%
113	Guinea-Bissau Estimated	730,127	+1.3%
114	Saudi Arabia	700,000	+23.4%
115	Malaysia	699,424	+6.4%
116	Greece	631,500	+19.2%
117	Lithuania	629,500	-0.8%
118	Sierra Leone	622,091	+6.6%
119	Bulgaria	588,910	+11.7%
120	North Korea	581,000	+0.5%
121	Armenia	579,256	+1.3%
122	Eswatini	548,964	+4.1%
123	Tunisia Estimated	535,032	-5.2%
124	Israel	525,900	-4.8%
125	Slovenia	485,610	+0.5%
126	Togo	464,299	+1%
127	Slovakia	442,290	+2.3%
128	Bosnia and Herzegovina	427,461	-0.5%
129	Croatia	423,000	+0.7%
130	Oman	412,948	+2%
131	Latvia	398,990	+0.9%
132	Albania	362,583	-12.8%
133	Republic of the Congo Estimated	336,147	-0.1%
134	Bhutan	332,418	-6.2%
135	Lesotho	330,726	-8.3%
136	Djibouti Estimated	311,178	+0.5%
137	Gambia	285,182	-8.5%
138	Estonia	253,300	-0.3%
139	Timor-Leste Estimated	246,718	-13.6%
140	North Macedonia	222,202	+2%
141	Libya	218,260	-5.1%
142	Puerto Rico Estimated	217,925	-3.4%
143	Luxembourg	190,690	-0.7%
144	Jamaica Estimated	160,000	0%
145	Taiwan	151,514	+1.8%
146	Moldova	108,900	-24.8%
147	United Arab Emirates	103,102	+2.2%
148	Belize Estimated	101,632	-0.3%
149	Guyana Estimated	96,208	-3.8%
150	Fiji	93,301	-18.5%
151	Papua New Guinea Estimated	91,903	-0.3%
152	Vanuatu Estimated	89,439	+0.7%
153	Lebanon	88,128	+1%
154	Cyprus	83,030	+12.2%
155	Iceland	80,643	-0.3%
156	New Caledonia Estimated	79,863	-1.3%
157	Jordan	77,888	+0.4%
158	Montenegro	71,134	-1.3%
159	Comoros Estimated	51,310	0%
160	Qatar	44,718	+3.8%
161	Liberia Estimated	42,269	-0.2%
162	Samoa Estimated	41,928	+12.8%
163	Gabon Estimated	38,825	-0.4%
164	Suriname	36,465	+3%
165	Trinidad and Tobago Estimated	34,769	+0.1%
166	Kuwait	31,480	-9.4%
167	Cape Verde	29,519	-0.4%
168	Palestine	25,790	-17.4%
169	Micronesia Estimated	17,122	+0.5%
170	Solomon Islands Estimated	15,114	+0.1%
171	Malta	14,290	+2.1%
172	Dominica Estimated	13,885	-0%
173	Tonga Estimated	12,048	+0.2%
174	Barbados Estimated	10,966	+0.1%
175	Saint Lucia Estimated	10,476	-0.7%
176	French Polynesia Estimated	8,579	+2.6%
177	Bahrain	7,000	-8.7%
178	Grenada Estimated	6,108	-3.1%
179	Equatorial Guinea Estimated	5,442	+0.4%
180	Mauritius	4,754	+36.5%
181	Antigua and Barbuda Estimated	4,198	-4.4%
182	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Estimated	3,390	+2.7%
183	Saint Kitts and Nevis	1,933	-3.4%
184	Faroe Islands	1,837	+2%
185	Hong Kong Estimated	1,570	+0.1%
186	São Tomé and Príncipe Estimated	1,415	-2.2%
187	Bahamas Estimated	749	-0.3%
188	Brunei	583	-5.5%
189	Seychelles Estimated	500	+17.4%
190	Cook Islands Estimated	224	+0.4%
191	Singapore Estimated	176	-3.8%
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 2020 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, 2020) [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, 2020. 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=2020. 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, 2020. 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=2020.

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, 2020 [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=2020 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{food_countries_by_number_of_2020,
  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, 2020}},
  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=2020. 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, 2020
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=2020
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/cattle-population/countries?period=2020.
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 217,836,282 head in 2020, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Which country has the lowest number of cattle?

Niue, with 113 head in 2020.

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 2020 and are not ranked.

Number of cattle: other rankings

EU countries