In its latest update, Eurostat reports that there were just short of 152 million pigs in the European Union in 2009. This represents a fall of 1.12 million animals or 0.7 per cent compared to the previous year. Some figures for 2009 are still provisional. The table below shows the counts for 2008 and 2009, as well as the change and percentage change between 2008 and 2009 for each country and the EU-27.

Germany remains the country with the largest pig population at a provisional 26.6 million, a fall of just 114,000 or 0.4 per cent from 2008.

Remaining in second place in the EU rankings is Spain although the decline in population there amounts to 947,000 animals or 3.6 per cent at 25.3 million in 2009.

The pig count in third-placed France in 2009 was more than 14.5 million, representing a smaller decline of 1.7 per cent (-258,000).

Not far behind is Poland, where there was a marginal increase of 10,200 pigs since 2008 to 14.25 million in 2009.

Of the top five pig-producing countries in the EU, only Denmark recorded a significant increase between 2008 and 2009. The 2009 total was up by 5.6 per cent (678,000) at almost 12.9 million animals. This was by far the greatest absolute increase in pig population in this set of statistics and also among the highest percentage change.

Other countries reporting significant increases in their pig populations in absolute terms were the Netherlands (+373,000), Austria (+73,000), UK (+51,000), Lithuania (+31,000), Belgium (+20,000), Greece (+12,000) and Luxembourg (+11,000).

Other significant declines in pig population between 2008 and 2009 were recorded in Romania (-380,000), Czech Republic (-221,00), Hungary (-136,000), Italy (-95,000), Sweden (-87,000), Bulgaria (-54,000), Finland (-46,000) and Portugal (-15,000).

Further Reading

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You can view our report on the Eurostat data for pig meat production in the EU-27 in 2009 by clicking here.