Summary
The FAO provides data on crop and “livestock” production for over 245 member countries. Official data from FAO member countries is collected from three primary sources: surveys, national publications, and official country websites. When official data is unavailable, unofficial sources are used (e.g., USDA). The FAO enters imputed values for fields with missing data.
Using this FAO data, Our World in Data reports the annual evolution from 1961 to 2020 of the amount of meat produced from various animals which can be further broken down by country and continent. This information is shown both in terms of million tons of meat produced, and in relative change in production with respect to the previous year. According to Our World in Data, over time, meat from chickens has accounted for an increasing proportion of global meat production, whereas meat from beef and buffalo has accounted for a decreasing proportion. The relative proportion of pigs has generally stayed the same. The subset of data used for this analysis is available by clicking the Download tab on this chart.
Our World in Data Citation: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2017) – “Meat and Dairy Production”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production [Online Resource]
*Note: according to the FAO, geographical comparisons are limited due to different methods in each area. Additionally, the FAO states there is fairly good comparability for shorter periods, but that full comparability cannot be expected for very long periods (i.e., from 1961) due to changes in product definition and classification.