Countries by number of chickens

China had the highest number of chickens of 194 countries in 2016, at 4,878,071,000 head. Nauru had the lowest, at 5,000 head. The median was 18,379,000 head and the figure for the World was 22,606,087,000 head. Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Highest4,878,071,000China

Lowest5,000Nauru

Median18,379,000194 countries

World22,606,087,000History

Map of countries, 2016

Under 10M
10M to 20M
20M to 50M
50M to 160M
160M and over
No data

head, 2016. Hatched areas have no value for this period. Source: FAOSTAT, Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain).

Top 40 countries, 2016

head. Source: FAOSTAT, Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	Countries	2016 head	Change on 2015
1	China Estimated	4,878,071,000	+3.9%
2	Indonesia	2,088,079,000	+6.1%
3	United States Estimated	1,463,000,000	+1%
4	Brazil	1,347,626,000	+1.6%
5	Pakistan Estimated	994,900,000	+6.9%
6	Iran Estimated	955,047,000	+1.4%
7	India Estimated	757,404,000	+2.2%
8	Mexico	549,231,000	+2.7%
9	Russia	497,978,000	+4.8%
10	Türkiye	329,011,000	+5.4%
11	Japan	310,128,000	+2.4%
12	Myanmar	296,267,000	-7%
13	Malaysia	289,666,000	+1.1%
14	Vietnam	277,189,000	+6.9%
15	Thailand Estimated	276,482,000	+1.6%
16	Bangladesh Estimated	268,393,000	+2.5%
17	France	243,526,000	-1.5%
18	Bolivia Estimated	201,985,000	+2.7%
19	Morocco Estimated	198,160,000	+3.7%
20	Saudi Arabia Estimated	187,034,000	+1.4%
21	Ukraine	186,354,000	-3.9%
22	Spain	182,200,000	-1.1%
23	Philippines	178,793,000	+1.3%
24	Dominican Republic Estimated	175,000,000	+1.7%
25	Algeria Estimated	172,472,000	+7.3%
26	South Korea	170,147,000	+3.7%
27	Poland	169,033,000	+15.7%
28	Canada Estimated	168,095,000	+0.3%
29	Nigeria	167,510,000	+17.2%
30	South Africa Estimated	163,870,000	+1.2%
31	United Kingdom	161,000,000	+2.5%
32	Ecuador Estimated	160,000,000	-0.6%
33	Germany	158,649,000	+13.3%
34	Peru	158,263,000	+4.8%
35	Colombia	157,135,000	+5.4%
36	Egypt Estimated	150,814,000	+3.7%
37	Italy Estimated	142,265,000	+3.3%
38	Venezuela Estimated	125,830,000	+1.6%
39	Argentina	111,100,000	-3.4%
40	Netherlands	105,620,000	-1.1%
41	Belarus Estimated	95,441,000	+5.2%
42	Tunisia Estimated	91,222,000	+1.9%
43	Taiwan	90,975,000	-3.8%
44	Australia	90,052,000	+1.6%
45	Romania	78,648,000	+4.2%
46	Ghana	73,885,000	+3.2%
47	Côte d’Ivoire Estimated	68,753,000	+6.2%
48	Nepal	68,631,000	+36.7%
49	Lebanon	68,364,000	+6.5%
50	Yemen Estimated	65,000,000	+1.2%
51	Senegal Estimated	63,088,000	+6.7%
52	Uzbekistan	60,700,000	+9.2%
53	Ethiopia	59,495,000	-1.7%
54	Chile	51,986,000	-0.4%
55	Cameroon Estimated	50,800,000	-0.4%
56	Kuwait	49,581,000	-1.3%
57	Sudan	47,884,000	+1.5%
58	Uganda	46,291,000	+0.5%
59	Honduras Estimated	45,567,000	+0.4%
60	Mali Estimated	45,000,000	+16.6%
61	Iraq	44,753,000	-0.1%
62	Kenya	43,796,000	+5.6%
63	Belgium	42,553,000	+12.8%
64	Israel	42,322,000	-6.3%
65	Zambia Estimated	38,716,000	+1.1%
66	Madagascar	37,920,000	+2.1%
67	Tanzania Estimated	37,068,000	+1.4%
68	Moldova Estimated	36,727,000	-0.3%
69	Trinidad and Tobago Estimated	36,010,000	+1.7%
70	Guatemala Estimated	35,928,000	-0%
71	Burkina Faso	35,808,000	-17.7%
72	Angola Estimated	35,700,000	0%
73	Uruguay	35,615,000	-3.7%
74	Greece	35,545,000	+3.1%
75	Kazakhstan	35,340,000	+4%
76	Laos	35,150,000	+2.1%
77	Jordan Estimated	34,700,000	+15.7%
78	Libya Estimated	34,170,000	+1.1%
79	Portugal	33,450,000	+9.1%
80	Hungary	32,432,000	+6.3%
81	Cuba	31,336,000	-2%
82	Guinea	30,116,000	+6%
83	Sweden Estimated	29,761,000	+2.8%
84	Azerbaijan	28,009,000	+1.6%
85	Guyana Estimated	26,224,000	+4.6%
86	South Sudan Estimated	25,579,000	+70.5%
87	Costa Rica Estimated	24,450,000	+1.9%
88	Panama	23,908,000	-0.1%
89	Nicaragua Estimated	23,771,000	+3.2%
90	United Arab Emirates Estimated	23,413,000	+0.9%
91	New Zealand	22,744,000	+7.6%
92	Sri Lanka	21,056,000	+25.8%
93	Togo	20,875,000	+8%
94	Czechia	20,422,000	-4.9%
95	Benin	20,002,000	+3.2%
96	Democratic Republic of the Congo Estimated	19,214,000	-5.6%
97	Niger Estimated	18,458,000	+1.3%
98	Malawi Estimated	18,300,000	+1.2%
99	Turkmenistan	18,040,000	+6%
100	Denmark	17,898,000	+6%
101	Brunei	17,499,000	+2.7%
102	Paraguay	17,466,000	+1%
103	Mozambique	17,337,000	+20.7%
104	El Salvador Estimated	16,882,000	+2.5%
105	Austria	16,745,000	+1.7%
106	Syria	16,158,000	-0%
107	Serbia	15,708,000	-7.2%
108	Ireland Estimated	15,438,000	+1.6%
109	North Korea	15,322,000	+0.1%
110	Bosnia and Herzegovina	15,066,000	-2.1%
111	Qatar Estimated	15,000,000	+55.8%
112	Mauritius Estimated	14,925,000	+1.6%
113	Zimbabwe Estimated	14,849,000	+4%
114	Bulgaria	14,258,000	+9.9%
115	Norway	13,919,000	-4.6%
116	Jamaica Estimated	13,762,000	+0.9%
117	Cambodia Estimated	13,124,000	+1%
118	Slovakia	12,513,000	+2.7%
119	Sierra Leone Estimated	12,500,000	0%
120	Finland	12,394,000	+3.5%
121	Afghanistan	11,899,000	+0.3%
122	Switzerland	10,893,000	+1.3%
123	Puerto Rico Estimated	9,807,000	-1.5%
124	Croatia	9,220,000	-3.9%
125	Lithuania	9,148,000	-9.4%
126	Georgia	8,309,000	+24.8%
127	Palestine	7,934,000	+28.3%
128	Liberia Estimated	7,779,000	+1.2%
129	Albania	7,634,000	-10.8%
130	Central African Republic Estimated	6,754,000	+0.4%
131	Chad Estimated	5,862,000	-0.6%
132	Haiti Estimated	5,743,000	+0.5%
133	Rwanda	5,238,000	+8.3%
134	Fiji Estimated	5,172,000	+1.5%
135	Tajikistan	5,051,000	-1.8%
136	Suriname	4,966,000	-1.1%
137	Oman Estimated	4,670,000	+0.5%
138	Mauritania Estimated	4,606,000	+0.3%
139	Barbados Estimated	4,500,000	+14.8%
140	Latvia	4,483,000	+1.6%
141	Papua New Guinea Estimated	4,463,000	+1%
142	Namibia Estimated	4,446,000	+9.6%
143	Kyrgyzstan	4,252,000	+5.1%
144	Hong Kong	4,042,000	-0.3%
145	Armenia	3,943,000	-4.9%
146	Somalia Estimated	3,725,000	+1.4%
147	Singapore Estimated	3,602,000	+1.7%
148	Slovenia	3,479,000	+6%
149	Gabon Estimated	3,239,000	+0.7%
150	Bahamas Estimated	3,062,000	-1.3%
151	Cyprus	3,050,000	-4.9%
152	Republic of the Congo Estimated	2,866,000	+0.4%
153	Burundi	2,841,000	+21.5%
154	Estonia	2,054,000	-10.1%
155	Guinea-Bissau Estimated	2,052,000	+1.5%
156	North Macedonia	1,866,000	+6%
157	Belize Estimated	1,628,000	+0.7%
158	Eritrea Estimated	1,308,000	+5%
159	Bahrain Estimated	1,281,000	+6.8%
160	Eswatini	1,194,000	-50.6%
161	Gambia Estimated	1,151,000	-26.4%
162	Bhutan	1,038,000	+62.4%
163	Malta Estimated	1,024,000	-1.1%
164	Botswana Estimated	1,011,000	+33%
165	Cape Verde Estimated	1,000,000	0%
166	Timor-Leste Estimated	936,000	+0.8%
167	Macao Estimated	754,000	+1.5%
168	Montenegro	723,000	+21.1%
169	Mongolia	719,000	-10.7%
170	Kiribati Estimated	624,000	+1.3%
171	New Caledonia Estimated	541,000	+2.9%
172	Comoros Estimated	531,000	+1.3%
173	Vanuatu	515,000	-20.4%
174	Samoa Estimated	484,000	-5.7%
175	Saint Lucia Estimated	458,000	+0.9%
176	Grenada Estimated	383,000	+0.5%
177	Equatorial Guinea Estimated	364,000	+0.6%
178	Tonga Estimated	331,000	+0.3%
179	French Polynesia Estimated	315,000	+1.9%
180	Lesotho	292,000	-44.1%
181	São Tomé and Príncipe	283,000	+3.7%
182	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Estimated	250,000	0%
183	Solomon Islands Estimated	242,000	+0.4%
184	Iceland	226,000	+2.3%
185	Dominica Estimated	200,000	0%
186	Micronesia Estimated	190,000	+0.5%
187	Antigua and Barbuda Estimated	156,000	+2%
188	Seychelles Estimated	134,000	+1.5%
189	Luxembourg	114,000	0%
190	Saint Kitts and Nevis Estimated	87,000	-1.1%
191	Tuvalu Estimated	54,000	+1.9%
192	Cook Islands Estimated	35,000	-2.8%
193	Niue Estimated	18,000	0%
194	Nauru Estimated	5,000	0%

Other periods

About this ranking

Number of chickens present in the country, laying hens and birds raised for meat alike, as published in FAOSTAT's crops and livestock products domain. FAO publishes thousands of birds; Invokely multiplies by 1,000.

A count on one day of the year, while broilers live a few weeks, so it understates the number of birds raised in a year. 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): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112). 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

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2025). Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112) (Countries by number of chickens, 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): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112), Countries by number of chickens, 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/chicken-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): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112). Countries by number of chickens, 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/chicken-population/countries?period=2016.

Harvard

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112), Countries by number of chickens, 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/chicken-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): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112): Countries by number of chickens, 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/chicken-population/countries?period=2016. Publisher attribution: FAO. 2025. FAOSTAT: Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112). 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): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112): Countries by number of chickens, 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/chicken-population/countries?period=2016
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/chicken-population/countries?period=2016.
N1  - Publisher attribution: FAO. 2025. FAOSTAT: Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112). 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 chickens?

China, with 4,878,071,000 head in 2016, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Which country has the lowest number of chickens?

Nauru, with 5,000 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): Chickens, stocks, 1000 head (item 1057, element 5112). Retrieved 2026-10-12. 4 countries have no value for 2016 and are not ranked.

Number of chickens: other rankings

EU countries