Where are the horses? otherwise known as mining for statistics on horse populations

I recently learned that there are 60 million horses in the world. While research has shown us that the domestication of horses probably began 5000 years ago in Kazakhstan, the proliferation of horses across the globe has supported our agricultural, industrial, touristic and recreational revolutions over the century, in addition to being of critical military support through many of those centuries.

Where do you think the horses are?

Let us begin with the top 10 countries in terms of horse population. Not the usual suspects. I expected to see more G10 countries on the list, and was certainly surprised by the low numbers for the United Kingdom. All this began when I realized that Canada has more horses per capita than the UK. Certainly our land mass has influence. As it does for Mongolia and Russia.

The sheer numbers of horses per capita in Mongolia is staggering. No doubt the tourism boom will continue there for the romance of galloping across the Mongolia steppes.

A friend of mine recently went to Mongolia with his family, and was shocked by the number of global hotel chains building in the capital. Daytrips to the yurt/steppes/short ride on the horse were abundant, and it appeared that tourists to Mongolia wanted the quick "instagramable" moment of the steppes without the hardship of the bathroom-less yurt and rustic cuisine.

I have built quite the dataset for my amusement, so if you have any questions about where the horses are please let me know. I will share the answers on the next post.

As for this chart: a few highlights include:

• USA tops the charts for the highest horse population in 2018 with 10.5 million horses.
• Mongolia has the highest horse per capita at 1,243 horses per 1000 humans. That's more than one horse for every Mongolian resident.
• Many of the top 10 countries have strong equestrian and/or cattle cultures, either for historical/traditional reasons or the strength of the cattle industry, for example Brazil, Argentina, USA.
• The top 10 countries have an average ratio of 161 horses per 1000 residents, compared to the more European ratio of 5 horses for every 1000 residents.
• Many of the top 10 countries benefit from significant land mass, or low population density per square km, such as USA, Brazil, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia.
• China, Colombia and Argentina have seen significant declines in horse population from 2010 to 2018 yet remain in the top 10 for 2018.
• And in our bonus examples, Iceland has the second highest horse per 1000 capita, behind Mongolia. Low population density, strong horse culture, and available land mass certainly are factors.