Global Human and Ruminant Livestock Counter

*Cattle, buffaloes, goats, and sheep.

Description

Human population was predicted using the FAOSTAT projected population for 2020 and 2021. A constant rate of growth over this period was assumed. Ruminant population size was predicted using FAOSTAT world livestock data from 1961-2019. See FAOSTAT Methods & Standards for details on how livestock numbers are assessed. We estimated ruminant livestock totals in 2020 and 2021 separately for each species using non-seasonal Holt-Winters exponential smoothing models. The counter assumes a linear increase in livestock numbers from 2020 to 2021. As of 2020, there are approximately 0.52 ruminants per person.

Human and livestock counter developed by Chris Wolf () and William Ripple ().