Sheep vs. People in New Zealand

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Last updated: Monday June 28th, 2021

While sheep still outnumber people 5 to 1, the human population is increasing while the sheep population is falling. In future decades there may be more people in New Zealand than there are sheep.

Sources: FAOStat, Worldometers

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Year	Sheep	People
1961	48462304	2424066
1962	48988000	2477199
1963	50190288	2530173
1964	51291808	2580530
1965	53747760	2626645
1966	57343264	2667082
1967	60029984	2702676
1968	60473600	2736827
1969	59937424	2774367
1970	60276112	2818387
1971	58912000	2870822
1972	60882720	2929686
1973	56683808	2989409
1974	55883008	3042177
1975	55320000	3082633
1976	56400384	3108570
1977	59104816	3122406
1978	62162864	3128956
1979	63523312	3135297
1980	68771776	3146619
1981	69883760	3164828
1982	70301456	3188539
1983	70262576	3215729
1984	69739008	3243036
1985	67853616	3268236
1986	67469520	3290304
1987	64243856	3310743
1988	64600080	3332792
1989	60568656	3360957
1990	57852192	3398172
1991	55161648	3446170
1992	52568000	3503181
1993	50298360	3564464
1994	49466056	3623279
1995	48816272	3674936
1996	47393908	3717349
1997	46077000	3752362
1998	44400000	3783974
1999	45679888	3818131
2000	42260000	3858999
2001	40010000	3907933
2002	39572000	3963206
2003	39552112	4022069
2004	39271336	4080438
2005	39879660	4135355
2006	40081594	4185888
2007	38460476	4233046
2008	34087864	4278155
2009	32383588	4323337
2010	32562612	4370062
2011	31132328	4418678
2012	31262715	4468457
2013	30786761	4518515
2014	29803402	4567527
2015	29120827	4614532
2016	27583673	4659265
2017	27526537	4702034
2018	27295749	4743131
2019	26821846	4783063

+20

Level 86

Aug 20, 2018

If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it.

If people ever outnumber sheep in New Zealand, the Earth will explode.

Level 76

Oct 9, 2018

70 million in the 80s!!!

Let's see one for Wales now.

Level 73

Oct 9, 2018

Why is it falling though? Too many vegetarians?

Level 68

Oct 9, 2018

Our sheep number is declining because our cow number is increasing. We now export more dairy products than wool

Level 42

Nov 13, 2021

A NEW ZEALANDER (or a Kiwi, if you'd prefer that)!!! I'VE NEVER MET ONE!!! OH MY GREEN MARKER YES!!!! I HAVE FINALLY SEEN ONE!!!

Level 59

Jun 22, 2022

There's a whole kiwi family with a YouTube channel. They have over 200,000 subscribers, too.

They're called:

Your New Zealand Family

Level 67

Apr 1, 2020

? that makes no sense do you mean meateaters?

Level 44

Jul 31, 2020

Both works, too many vegans would mean no need for more sheep

Level 75

Oct 21, 2020

lol you suggest they're eating all the sheep?

Level 59

Nov 18, 2020

Either that or they aren't eating enough sheep for the demand to be there.

Level 67

Oct 9, 2018

Was hoping based on the title for a record of inter-species wrestling matches, but this chart is interesting too.

When I was in New Zealand, our tour guide told us a mind-boggling story about how, upon realizing that China was displacing New Zealand as a primary exporter of wool, the New Zealand government reasoned that dairy farming would be more lucrative than wool farming in the future, and encouraged its farmers (with government subsidies, of course) to make the switch. Lots of farmers did it, and the economy took off.

Can you imagine that in the US? The president telling people to fundamentally change how they earn their livelihoods on his word, and to just trust that he is right? People would cry despotism and raise hell. I'm sure the version of the New Zealand story I got was simplified and probably simplistic, but nothing like it could ever even begin here in the US. We can't even sell Americans on the superiority of $1 coins to $1 bills.

Level 75

Nov 14, 2019

I had no idea the New Zealand human population is so stable. Does anyone know why this may be?

Level 40

Feb 15, 2020

cuz we're boring.

Level ∞

Nov 2, 2020

It's not stable at all. It's growing quickly. It's just that it's hard to see in this graph with all the sheep.

Level 68

Oct 27, 2021

Yeah I found the graph a bit misleading, but I don't see how we can fix it so it's probably best left alone.