Global Factory Farming
A global analysis conducted by Sentience Institute, last updated in 2019 suggests over 90% of farmed animals worldwide live on factory farms.
This includes an estimated 74% of all farmed land animals (vertebrates only) and virtually all farmed fish.
In total, they estimate 31.0 billion land animals and 38.8 to 215.9 billion fish are being farmed globally at any given time.
Fish comprise around 78% of all farmed animals globally, chickens raised for meat 12%, and chickens raised for eggs 5%, while cows and pigs each comprise only 1%.
Source: https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/global-animal-farming-estimates
USA
In the United States, they estimate around 99% of farmed animals live on factory farms. Previously, data from 2012 showed around 98.66% of U.S. farmed animals lived were confined in factory farms. The latest data suggests 98.74%. This analysis uses EPA regulations for what constitutes a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) in combination with 2017 USDA census data on how many animals live on farms of various sizes.
The analysis estimates the following for US farms:
- Broiler chickens (99.9%) live on factory farms
- Turkeys (99.8%) live on factory farms
- Egg chickens (98.2%) live on factory farms
- Pigs (98.3%) live on factory farms
- Cows (70.4%) live on factory farms
Source: https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/us-factory-farming-estimates
UK
There is little publicly available information on the method of production system used on-farm in the UK.
Information was gathered by CIWF using a combination of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, planning documents, industry publications, feed company literature, equipment suppliers, farm websites, on-location verification and other sources.
They estimate that 73% on animals farmed in the UK are kept on factory farms.
This number comprises 40,000 dairy cows, 1.3 million pigs, 11 million layer hens and 100 million broiler (meat) chickens.
