Major livestock types — Share in total livestock by country

About this data

Indicator

Major livestock types — Share in total livestock

Unit

%LSU

Source

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Licence

CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO)

Coverage

246 places, 14,138 data points, 1961–2023

Last refreshed

12 August 2026

The Livestock Patterns domain of FAOSTAT contains data on livestock numbers, shares of major livestock species and densities of livestock units in the agricultural land area. Values are calculated using Livestock Units (LSU), which facilitate aggregating information for different livestock types. Data are available by country, with global coverage, for the period 1961 to the most recent year available with annual updates. This methodology applies the LSU coefficients reported in the "Guidelines for the preparation of livestock sector reviews" (FAO, 2011). From this publication, LSU coefficients are computed by livestock type and by country. The reference unit used for the calculation of livestock units (=1 LSU) is the grazing equivalent of one adult dairy cow producing 3000 kg of milk annually, fed without additional concentrated foodstuffs. FAOSTAT agri-environmental indicators on livestock patterns closely follow the structure of the indicators in EUROSTAT.