Beef Consumption by Country 2024

Despite the large number of people who eat vegetarian diets or eschew beef, the world has millions of beef eaters. In fact, in 2020, global consumption of beef reached 130 billion pounds.

Determining Beef Consumption Amounts

When looking at beef consumption in individual countries, either the food supply or consumption values provide the necessary information. However, the numbers will differ slightly due to the definitions of food supply and consumption.

Estimating Beef Consumption Via Supply

Beef supply numbers indicate the amount of beef available within a country for consumers and businesses to use. Because this number counts the volume of beef before people have a chance to eat it shows a higher number than actual consumption.

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations tracks the beef supply for countries globally. This organization uses the metric system, the most accepted form of measurement around the world, for this statistic, kilograms per capita per year to report its supply numbers.

Beef Consumption Values

Beef consumption reflects the amount of beef actually consumed and not thrown away due to spoilage or waste. Therefore, the consumption values are typically lower than the supply numbers for a country.

Since the United States Department of Agriculture provides global beef consumption statistics, the numbers are in total volume in pounds for an entire country.

Countries with the Highest Beef Consumption as of 2023

Beef consumption supply and consumption have two different top-ranking countries. For per-person beef supply, Argentina tops the list. In that country, residents had an average supply of 103 pounds (46.93 kilograms) of beef per person per year.

However, when looking at the total consumption volume for a country, the United States ranks at the top. In 2020, United States residents ate 21% of the world's beef, which was nearly 27.6 billion pounds (12.5 billion kilograms). The supply for the United States in 2020 was only 83.48 pounds (37.87 kilograms) per capita annually, placing it in third for supply after Argentina and Zimbabwe.

Countries with the Lowest Beef Consumption in 2023

Not all countries have high beef supply levels. The country with the lowest supply and consumption is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2020, that nation had a beef supply of 0.57 pounds (0.26 kilograms) per person per year. Its consumption that year was 0.02% of the world's beef, or 26 million pounds (11.7 million kilograms).