The number of pigs in the Netherlands is below ten million for the first time since the 1970s. This continues a downward trend. The number of cattle has also decreased further in the past year.
The Netherlands had 5.1 percent fewer pigs in 2025 than a year earlier, according to preliminary figures from the CBS agricultural census. For the first time since 1979, there are fewer than ten million pigs. In 1997, there were still more than fifteen million.
A downward trend has been visible again since 2015, which has accelerated in recent years. This has to do with regulations for pig farmers to stop their businesses. The aim of this is to reduce nitrogen emissions and odor nuisance.
Small pig farms in particular have stopped in recent years. At companies with fewer than five hundred pigs, two-thirds stopped in the past decade. The number of large companies, with more than five thousand pigs, remained stable.
The number of cattle in the Netherlands also decreased in 2025, according to the CBS, but less sharply than the number of pigs. In 2025, there were 3.3 percent fewer cattle than a year earlier. The number of dairy farms decreased by more than a quarter in ten years.