Roughly how many chickens are alive on Earth at any given moment?
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Answer
About 26 billion chickens
The chicken is by far the most numerous bird on the planet, and its bones may become one of the clearest fossil markers of our era.
How to estimate it
Each of 8 billion people eats about 9 chickens a year: 72 billion birds. Meat chickens live about 6 weeks, one eighth of a year, so 72 / 8 = 9 billion are alive at once. Add laying hens: 8 billion × 180 eggs / 300 eggs per hen is about 5 billion. That makes 14 billion, plus slower growing backyard flocks. The FAO figure is about 26 billion chickens.
Source: FAO (FAOSTAT)
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