2023-05-22 08:51:55
New Zealand
Fewer than five sheep per capita, a statistic not seen since 1850
According to the latest statistics, the Oceanian country has 25.3 million sheep for 5.2 million inhabitants. Forty years ago, the proportion was 40 sheep per resident.
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Compared to 2017, the date of the last census, New Zealand has “lost” 400,000 sheep.
AFP
There are still many more sheep than people in New Zealand, but the proportion is at its lowest since the 1850s: less than five sheep per person, according to figures published on Monday by the public body in charge of statistics. In June 2022, the country had 25.3 million of these sheep, a drop of 400,000 heads (-2%) compared to the last census, according to a report on local agricultural production, published every five years by Stats NZ.
“The ratio of sheep per capita fell to less than five to one in 2022, for the first time since 1850, when sheep were first counted,” the organization said. “In 1982 there were 22 sheep per capita in New Zealand. Australia now has three times as many sheep as New Zealand, although the ratio is only about three sheep per capita.
New Zealand, home to 5.2 million people, is one of the world’s leading wool exporters. Last year, the country sold more than 450 million of its dollars (255 million francs) of wool abroad. But rising production costs and falling wool prices have affected herd sizes, which have been steadily declining since the 1980s, when the number of sheep reached 72 million.
(AFP)
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