A Commission staff working document published on 8 July 2026 provides a detailed analysis of the EU livestock sector, revealing a sector in decline for most animal populations, with increasing concentration and specialisation. The document accompanies the EU strategy on livestock and serves as a factual baseline for future policy discussions.
The analysis shows that between 2005 and 2025, the number of bovine animals fell by 10%, pigs by 15%, sheep and goats each by 26%, while poultry increased by 14%. In 2025, the EU counted 132 million pigs, 72 million bovine animals, 54 million sheep, 10 million goats, and 1.6 billion poultry birds. The number of livestock farms has also shrunk: in 2020 there were approximately 4.1 million such farms, representing 41% of all EU farms. Of these, 41% have less than 2 hectares, and 6% of farms concentrate over 70% of total livestock units, indicating a high degree of structural concentration.
Feed costs remain a major burden, averaging 25%-28% of total costs across the sector, but reaching nearly 60% in pig and poultry farms in 2022. Organic livestock has grown but remains a small share: organic bovines reached 7% of total in 2024, sheep 9.3%, goats 10.2%, and pigs only 1.1%. The document also projects that EU meat production, which stood at 42.7 million tonnes in 2025, will decline by 3% from 2025 to 2035, with poultry as the sole exception expected to grow by 5%. Milk production reached 161.8 million tonnes in 2025, and egg production 6.4 million tonnes.
The working document does not propose new policy measures but provides the analytical underpinning for the Commission's forthcoming EU strategy on livestock. It highlights the sector's diversity across member states, with average livestock density ranging from 0.01 livestock units per hectare in Vienna to 7.41 in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant. The document is expected to inform debates in the European Parliament and Council as the strategy is developed.