Animal Population

Bison Population by State 2025

Alabama: 311 Alaska: 1,489 Arizona: 112 Arkansas: 273 California: 595 Colorado: 9,555 Connecticut: 91 Florida: 205 Georgia: 234 Idaho: 5,361 Illinois: 952 Indiana: 2,032 Iowa: 1,337 Kansas: 8,672 Kentucky: 4,865 Maine: 247 Maryland: 159 Michigan: 2,789 Minnesota: 3,109 Mississippi: 52 Missouri: 1,979 Montana: 20,466 Nebraska: 32,206 Nevada: 54 New Hampshire: 93 New Mexico: 4,412 New York: 3,230 North Carolina: 274 North Dakota: 12,487 Ohio: 1,451 Oklahoma: 7,137 Oregon: 1,489 Pennsylvania: 1,686 South Carolina: 374 South Dakota: 33,995 Tennessee: 536 Texas: 8,187 Utah: 805 Vermont: 219 Virginia: 1,366 Washington: 1,037 West Virginia: 521 Wisconsin: 6,754 Wyoming: 8,715

Bison Population 2022

  • Posted rates are for bison kept in commercial herds per the USDA’s 2017 and 2022 Census of Agriculture.
  • It is estimated that between 30 million and 60 million bison lived in North America during the mid-1800s. However, they were heavily hunted during the late 1800s, and by 1889 fewer than 600 remained. Careful conservation and breeding efforts enabled the species to avoid extinction. Today, population estimates range from approximately 200,000 to 500,000 bison, with roughly 30,000 living in the wild and the rest in commercial herds.
  • In 2017, the National Bison Association set a goal of expanding the bison population to 1 million by 2027.