Did you know that there are more chickens in this world than human beings? The human population of the world is about 6 billion whereas the number of chickens slaughtered each year alone is about 8 billion. In 2002, there were 15.9 billion chickens on the Earth, which happens to be twice the number of humans in 2010. So, how many chickens are there in the world? As per United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the average number of chickens worldwide is about 19 billion, i.e. 3 chickens per human.
China, the most populated country in the world also happens to be the country with highest number of chickens; there were about 4 billion chickens in China in 2002.
Other interesting facts about chickens:
- A chicken can run at a speed of as high as 14.5 km per hour.
- A study has suggested that chickens can outsmart human toddlers in logic and numeric ability. Within few hours of hatching, they can keep track of different objects, individuals and numbers up to 5; human babies take about 1 year to develop these abilities.
- Chickens have 75 percent water in their body whereas humans have 60 percent water.
- The size and weight of commercial broiler chickens is on the rise too; average weight of a 56 days old chicken has jumped from 905g in 1957 to 1808g in 1978 to 4202g in 2005.