The global market for meat products has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated annual global meat production at 361 million tonnes last year. This translates 118.6 grams It is consumed per person per day.

However, according to FAO, this consumption is estimated to increase by another 14% by 2030. Considering that the population will exceed 9 billion by the middle of this century, meat consumption is expected to reach 570 million.

The countries where per capita meat consumption is increasing the fastest are Hong Kong and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. What influences this trend? Various aspects such as demographic growth, urbanization and increasing wealth. In other words, as countries get out of poverty, more meat is included in their diets and consumption increases.

So now some Developed countries Countries such as Spain, Italy or France are among the main meat consumers in Europe. And the USA and Japan of the whole world. In addition to all this, these nations also have cultural preferences for meat-based diets. The economic factor may explain why, despite India having a high level of meat supply and a huge population, the country’s per capita consumption is only 4.58 kg, making it one of the countries that consume the least meat per capita.

WORLDMAPS designed a map using UN data to show which countries eat the most meat and what type of meat they consume. A different color was used for different categories depending on the animal it came from (beef, pork, lamb, poultry, seafood or others) and then added annual per capita consumption calculated in kilograms.

You can examine the map in its maximum resolution. Here.

As seen in the map and graph, the countries with the highest total meat consumption over 170 kg per capita are Hong Kong, Iceland and Macau. While the United States and China consume the most chicken in absolute numbers, they rank 7th and 112th, respectively, in per capita poultry consumption. Poultry is the most popular meat in 70 countries, or around 40% of the entire database, particularly in the United Kingdom and former British colonies, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East.

There is a country that is the leader not only in seafood and poultry consumption, but also in pork consumption with 55 kg per capita per year: Hong Kong. Poland and SpainIt also comes close to the Asian country, the world’s main pork producer, with similar figures. In fact, pork is also popular in many European countries, as it is a local tradition in many places.

Cultural and geographical differences

However, in many countries in Asia and Africa, where beef is predominant, pork is not consumed for religious reasons. At this point, the map highlights Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan, and East African countries, including Ethiopia. But the palm goes to Argentina in Latin America. It almost consumes the population of 46 million 47 kg of beef per person per yearThe most of any country in the UN database.

As explained in this Visual Capitalist article, this type of meat predominates in the South American country because the cattle brought by Spanish settlers have adapted so well to the region’s green plains.

What about lamb? Mongolia has no rivals. Its people consume approximately 66 kilos per person per year. There is also a cultural reason for this: the legacy of a nation of skilled shepherds. Additionally, Mongolia stands out with its traditional consumption of horse meat. The country produced just over 100,000 tonnes in 2020; This represents one-sixth of the country’s total production that year.

Finally, even though we mentioned it at the end of the article, if we consider fish as meat The second most consumed meat in 56 countriesMost are located close to the coast. In the Atlantic, Iceland is the world’s largest consumer of fish and seafood, accounting for a staggering 90 kg per capita per year. Behind Iceland are other island and coastal countries such as the Maldives, Macau, Japan, Portugal, Sweden and Norway.

Image | WORLD MAPS

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*An earlier version of this article was published in July 2023.