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57,474 tons
- Overall, China is by far the world's largest consumer of fish, with 57,474 tons annually.
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Overall, China is by far the world's largest consumer of fish, with 57,474 tons annually. That's more than four times greater than the next biggest, Indonesia, at 12,154 tons, with India close behind at 11,016 tons. The United States takes fourth place with 7,544 tons, and Japan rounds out the top five with 5,842 tons.
Global average consumption of fish and other seafood per person reached a record high of 20.5 kilograms in 2019. Countries with the highest consumption include coastal nations such as Iceland or the Maldives, at more than 80 kilograms per person per year on average.
Mar 14, 2024 · Date range. 1961–2021. Unit. kilograms per year per capita. Chart 1 of 2. Sources and processing. This data is based on the following sources. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – Food Balances: Food Balances (-2013, old methodology and population)
- Fish Production
- Methods of Fishing
- Fish Consumption and Nutrition
- Employment and Livelihoods in Fishing
- Fish Stocks and Overfishing
- Environmental Footprint of Fishing
- Dredging and Trawling
- Aquaculture
- Discards
- Marine Protected Areas
Global fish production
Global production of fish and seafood has quadrupled over the past 50 years. Not only has the world population more than doubled over this period, the average person now eats almost twice as muchseafood as half a century ago. This has increased pressure on fish stocks across the world. Globally, the share of fish stocks which are overexploited – meaning we catch them faster than they can reproduce to sustain population levels – has more than doubledsince the 1980s and this means that current...
Total seafood production by country
The world produces around 200 million tonnes of fish and seafood every year. This comes from a combination of wild fish catch and fish farming. In fact, rapid growth of aquaculture over the last few decades means we now produce moreseafood from fish farms than we do from fisheries. Which countries produce the most seafood? We can break this down by wild catch and fish farming. But let’s first look at total production, from the sum of these two methods. This is shown in the map here. China is...
Wild fish catch
The chart here show the distribution of wild fish catch by country. This is total seafood production minus aquaculture (fish farming). By clicking on any country you can see how its production has changed over time.
Trawling, dredging and pole-and-line: what methods do we use to catch fish?
Say the word ‘fishing’ and very different images come to mind. Some of us might picture a lone fisherman with a wooden fishing rod. Others will picture a 100-meter wide net being dragged along the seafloor by an industrial ship. There are a variety of ways to catch fish. These matter because they depend on what fish we want to catch; affect how much fish we can catch (and ultimately, the amount of fish we have to eat; and the income fishers get); and what the ecological impacts are. Discussio...
How much fish do we catch from each method?
Now that we have some understanding of what each of these methods mean, let’s look at how common each is. In the charts here we see the breakdown of global wild fish catch by the type of fishing gear used. This data is sourced from the Sea Around Us database, published by Daniel Pauly, Dirk Zeller and Maria Palomares.4 Globally, bottom trawling is the most common method, accounting for one-quarter of fish catch. Pelagic (midwater) trawling accounts for an additional 10%. This means all types...
Fish and seafood is an important source of nutrition for many people across the world. Not only does it provide an important source of protein, fish also contains other nutrients and vitamins that are important for overall health, such as vitamin A, calcium, iron and omega-3 fatty acids.5 How much fish do people across the world eat, and how much o...
How many people are employed in fisheries and aquaculture?
Fish plays an important role in nutrition for communities across the world. For many, it is a key source of high-quality protein and provides other vital micronutrients for health. But people also rely on fishing and fish farming as a primary source of income. How many people are employed in these industries? The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 59.5 million people globally were employed as fishers (catching wild fish) or fish farming (aquaculture) in 2018. The breakd...
How much of the world's fish is managed sustainably?
Sustainable fishing, by its fisheries definition, is catching just the right amount. If you harvest too much then fish stocks decline. If you catch too little then you’re giving up valuable food resources and income. In our related articlewe take a closer look at different concepts of sustainable fishing, and how this ‘sweet spot’ – the maximum sustainable yield – is defined. How much of the world’s fish is caught sustainably? This is often measured in terms of fish stocks. A fish stock is a...
How is overfishing changing over time?
This gives us a static view of global fisheries, but how has this been changing over time? Are things getting worse? The chart here shows the status of the world’s fish stocks from 1974 through to 2017. The share of stocks that are overfished has increased over the last half century. In 1974, just 10% were overexploited. Although exploitation rates varied year-to-year, this generally increased through the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. By 2008, this reached 32%. Over the last decade, there has...
Will the oceans be empty by 2048?
Sometimes there are claims that seem so far-fetched that it’s hard to imagine they need to be addressed. But this is one that simply won’t die – it has been repeated so many times that many believe it to be true. It hit the headlines again after featuring in the popular Netflix documentary Seaspiracy, earlier this year. It made the claim that: "If current fishing trends continue, we will see virtually empty oceans by the year, 2048". Seaspiracyis far from the first source to repeat this claim...
One of the best ways to reduce our impact on the environment is changing what we eat. The research shows us that we can have the biggest impact by eating less meat and dairy. Or, substituting lower-impact meats such as chicken and pork for beef and lamb. But I’m often asked the question: “What about fish and seafood? Is that an environmentally-frie...
Most of the fishing methods we use have some kind of environmental impact – whether it’s burning fuel in fishing boats; unintentionally catching fish or marine animals we don’t want (bycatch); or leaving behind remnants of fishing gear. But dredging – sometimes referred to as bottom trawling– has the largest negative impact. Bottom trawling drags a...
How much feed for aquaculture comes from fish?
Fish farming – also known as aquaculture – has boomed over the last 50 years. Production has increased more than 50-fold. In fact, we now produce more seafood from aquaculture than we do from wild catch. This has been good news for the health of global fish stocks. Global demand for seafood might have increased, but wild fish populations are finite. If we push beyond the limits of how quickly fish populations recover, this becomes unsustainable. Aquaculture has therefore been an ingenious sol...
When fishers go out to catch fish, it would be great if they only caught the fish that they needed. If they’re fishing for tuna, they catch their daily quota of tunas and leave the rest of the ecosystem undisturbed. Unfortunately this is not the case. Fishers also catch marine life that they don’t want. Catch that is not the species we’re targeting...
How much of the world's ocean is protected?
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are areas of ocean – which includes the water column and seafloor – that have been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment. Regulations in marine protected areas can vary but includes interventions such as no fishing zones; restrictions on fishing such as the type of gear that can be used; bans or restrictions on activities such as mining; and regulations on inputs to the ocean from rivers and industrial effluen...
China consumed 55.2 million tonnes of fish in 2017 – about 36 percent of the global total – making it the largest fish consumer in the world. In per capita terms, China consumed roughly 39 kg of fish per person in 2017, more than double the average of the rest of the world (15.5 kg).
China: 40.33 23 Spain: 40.30 24 Vietnam: 39.84 25 Saint Lucia: 34.44 26 France: 33.64 27 Finland: 33.52 28 Lithuania: 31.89 29 Luxembourg: 31.47 30 Sweden: 31.34 31 Grenada: 30.78 32 Taiwan: 29.75 33 Italy: 29.64 34 Oman: 29.30 35 Fiji: 28.89 36 Sri Lanka: 28.57 37 Vanuatu: 28.57 38 Thailand: 28.48 39 Philippines: 28.39 40 Solomon Islands: 27.88
Sep 23, 2010 · Science News. from research organizations. China tops world in catch and consumption of fish. Date: September 23, 2010. Source: Pew Environment Group. Summary: China leads the world in...
