How many cattle are in the world? The global live cattle population amounted to about 1.57 billion heads in 2023, up from approximately 1.51 million in 2021. Cows as livestock The domestication of cattle began as early as 10,000 to 5,000 years ago. From ancient times up to the present, cattle are bred to provide meat and dairy. Cattle are also employed as draft animals to plow the fields or transport heavy objects. Cattle hide is used for the production of leather, and dung for fuel and agricultural fertilizer. In 2022, India was home to the highest number of milk cows in the world. Cattle farming in the United States Cattle meat such as beef and veal is one of the most widely consumed types of meat across the globe, and is particularly popular in the United States. The United States is the top producer of beef and veal of any country worldwide. In 2021, beef production in the United States reached 12.6 million metric tons. Beef production appears to be following a positive trend in the United States. More than 33.07 million cattle were slaughtered both commercially and in farms annually in the United States in 2019, up from 33 million in the previous year.

The cattle population in Russia has continuously declined since 2003, when it was measured at nearly **** million heads. In 2023, the number of cattle livestock in the country reached around **** million heads.

India's cattle inventory amounted to about *** million in 2023. In comparison, the global cattle population stood at over ***********, India had the highest cattle population followed by Brazil, China and the United States that year. Where are cattle bred in India? As one of the leading dairy producers and consumers worldwide, cattle in the south Asian country were bred mainly in the rural areas. However, its population was spread unevenly across the vast land. Uttar Pradesh ranked first in terms of milk production, followed by Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh in 2023. Contextualizing the holiness of the Indian cow Considered a sacred animal by Hindus in India, the cow is associated with several gods and goddesses. This deep religious and cultural significance has led to communal tensions. In 2014, the government established the Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) to conserve and develop indigenous breeds of cows and buffaloes. While the general goal was well-received, it aligns with the underlying Hindu nationalist narrative of the current government.

Number of cattle, by class and farm type, Canada and provinces (head x 1,000). Data are available on an annual basis.

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This dataset as reported to the Rural Payments Agency contains a list of the cattle population in 2010 Attribution statement: © Rural Payments Agency

This graph shows the total number of bovine population in France from 1995 to 2023, by type of cattle, in thousand heads. This shows that total herd exceeded 20 million cattle in 1995, including about 4.7 million suckler cows. In 2023, the number of French cattle cows had decreased to about 17.04 million heads.

The table shows the cattle population by county and region every six months [thousands]

This dataset as reported to the Rural Payments Agency contains information on Cattle born in or imported into Great Britain. Attribution statement: © Rural Payments Agency

Greece - Number of dairy cows was 79.50 Thousand in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Greece - Number of dairy cows - last updated from the EUROSTAT on September of 2025. Historically, Greece - Number of dairy cows reached a record high of 144.00 Thousand in December of 2010 and a record low of 79.50 Thousand in December of 2024.

Demographic composition and dynamics of animal and human populations are important determinants for the transmission dynamics of infectious disease and for the effect of infectious disease or environmental disasters on productivity. In many circumstances, demographic data are not available or of poor quality. Since 1999 Switzerland has been recording cattle movements, births, deaths and slaughter in an animal movement database (AMD). The data present in the AMD offers the opportunity for analysing and understanding the dynamic of the Swiss cattle population. A dynamic population model can serve as a building block for future disease transmission models and help policy makers in developing strategies regarding animal health, animal welfare, livestock management and productivity. The Swiss cattle population was therefore modelled using a system of ordinary differential equations. The model was stratified by production type (dairy or beef), age and gender (male and female calves: 0–1 year, heifers and young bulls: 1–2 years, cows and bulls: older than 2 years). The simulation of the Swiss cattle population reflects the observed pattern accurately. Parameters were optimized on the basis of the goodness-of-fit (using the Powell algorithm). The fitted rates were compared with calculated rates from the AMD and differed only marginally. This gives confidence in the fitted rates of parameters that are not directly deductible from the AMD (e.g. the proportion of calves that are moved from the dairy system to fattening plants).

This dataset collection contains information about the number of dairy cows by herd size in the country of Finland. The data is sourced from the website of Luke, the Natural Resources Institute Finland. It provides insights into the distribution of dairy cows across different herd sizes. The collection consists of one or more dataset tables, offering detailed statistics on the dairy cow population in Finland. Explore this dataset collection to gain a comprehensive understanding of the dairy cow industry in Finland.

This dataset as reported to the Rural Payments Agency contains a list of animal population by breed on 1 January this includes applications received for cattle born in or imported into Great Britain Attribution statement:

"This dataset as reported to the Rural Payments Agency contains cattle alive on 1 December 2006 but have consequently died, all cattle registered to holdings on the Isle of Wight, all premises types except slaughterhouses e.g. farms, markets, animals with anomalous movement histories due to missing movement reports. Attribution statement: © Rural Payments Agency

This dataset as reported to the Rural Payments Agency contains information on cattle population by county Attribution statement: © Rural Payments Agency

Denmark - Number of dairy cows was 542.78 Thousand in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Denmark - Number of dairy cows - last updated from the EUROSTAT on September of 2025. Historically, Denmark - Number of dairy cows reached a record high of 579.00 Thousand in December of 2012 and a record low of 542.78 Thousand in December of 2024.

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238.8 (Thousand heads) in 2017. Livestock population include all age groups population of livestock of corresponding type. Object - large, medium and small farms. Period - as on the 1st of February.

This dataset presents the cattle population count at the pixel level. The data is from Harvard dataverse 2010

This dataset as reported to the Rural Payments Agency contains cattle born before 1 August 1996 which were not registered until 2000, cattle whose birth date is unknown so registered as 11 November 1111 as a default birth date. Attribution statement: © Rural Payments Agency