The livestock population in the European Union has decreased by just under nine percent over the past twenty years. This emerges from recent data on the European food chain. Between 2001 and 2020, the total livestock for pigs, cattle, sheep, and goats in the EU declined by an estimated 8.9%.
The largest decrease was recorded for sheep. The reduction in the number of pigs was relatively modest. In 2020, there were 146 million pigs, 76 million cattle, and an estimated 75 million sheep and goats on farms in the EU. A majority of the livestock is kept in only a few EU member states.
About a quarter (23.3%) of the cattle were found in France. In Spain, a quarter of the EU populations of pigs (22.4%) and sheep (24.8%) were held. Greece (28.8%) and Spain (21.4%) together accounted for more than half of all goats.
The livestock density index is calculated as the number of animals per hectare of arable land. Based on this, in 2016 the highest livestock densities were recorded in the Netherlands (3.8 large livestock units per hectare of arable land), Malta (2.9), and Belgium (2.8). In contrast, livestock farming was relatively extensive in the Baltic countries and Bulgaria, with less than 0.30 large livestock units per hectare.
Some EU countries specialize in livestock farming. For example, Ireland accounted for 8.5% of the cattle last year (nearly the same level as Spain), while Denmark took care of 9.2% of the EU pigs (almost the same level as France).
There are also large differences per farm and country. Livestock farms in Denmark (200 large livestock per farm), the Netherlands (185), and Belgium (148) were again particularly large. On the other hand, there were fewer than 10 animals per livestock farm in Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania, Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania.