The World Gets More Seafood From Aquaculture Than Wild Catch
There are two ways to produce seafood: catch fish in the wild or farm your own. Seafood farming is often called “aquaculture”. Aquaculture is dominated by the farming of fish, but also includes other organisms, such as crustaceans and aquatic plants.
Aquaculture has grown rapidly over the last few decades. In fact, as the chart shows, it has overtaken wild catch since 2013.
This has relieved some pressure on wild fish stocks: if this increased demand for fish had been satisfied by wild catch, then many more would be severely overexploited.
Dataset
Entity | Year | Aquaculture production (metric tons) | Capture fisheries production (metric tons) |
---|---|---|---|
World | 1960 | 2047815 | 31674620 |
World | 1961 | 1955924 | 35315724 |
World | 1962 | 2031135 | 38334212 |
World | 1963 | 2278131 | 38942196 |
World | 1964 | 2464211 | 43003256 |
World | 1965 | 2664490 | 43436150 |
World | 1966 | 2878194 | 47137580 |
World | 1967 | 2996726 | 50155444 |
World | 1968 | 3172722 | 53130170 |
World | 1969 | 3353912 | 51177210 |
World | 1970 | 3607571 | 56275376 |
World | 1971 | 4058721 | 56374240 |
World | 1972 | 4435236 | 51522136 |
World | 1973 | 4605380 | 51190490 |
World | 1974 | 5054032 | 54059060 |
World | 1975 | 5333828 | 52683136 |
World | 1976 | 5509795 | 55983540 |
World | 1977 | 6501285.5 | 55471400 |
World | 1978 | 6862791 | 57782924 |
World | 1979 | 6947785 | 58310264 |
World | 1980 | 7604596 | 58338390 |
World | 1981 | 7986865 | 60536796 |
World | 1982 | 8356278 | 62056484 |
World | 1983 | 9236094 | 62072104 |
World | 1984 | 10330986 | 67121624 |
World | 1985 | 11476787 | 68816750 |
World | 1986 | 12672402 | 73710030 |
World | 1987 | 13905034 | 74395416 |
World | 1988 | 15558996 | 77731736 |
World | 1989 | 16581329 | 78467190 |
World | 1990 | 16826592 | 75696130 |
World | 1991 | 18647392 | 75529920 |
World | 1992 | 22057054 | 86224320 |
World | 1993 | 25526788 | 87535550 |
World | 1994 | 28915410 | 93150990 |
World | 1995 | 32365968 | 93243010 |
World | 1996 | 35098900 | 94905790 |
World | 1997 | 35591910 | 94313670 |
World | 1998 | 37721636 | 86681240 |
World | 1999 | 41004304 | 92620740 |
World | 2000 | 43012664 | 94439450 |
World | 2001 | 45557276 | 91685230 |
World | 2002 | 48672236 | 92053370 |
World | 2003 | 51533390 | 89287900 |
World | 2004 | 55811024 | 93964640 |
World | 2005 | 59155620 | 93592376 |
World | 2006 | 62950444 | 91172210 |
World | 2007 | 66320940 | 91527750 |
World | 2008 | 70219520 | 90607910 |
World | 2009 | 73848090 | 90001590 |
World | 2010 | 77996350 | 88085540 |
World | 2011 | 81630740 | 92559410 |
World | 2012 | 88191624 | 89684200 |
World | 2013 | 94962620 | 90873390 |
World | 2014 | 99634670 | 91426520 |
World | 2015 | 104007704 | 92557880 |
World | 2016 | 108221220 | 90549720 |
World | 2017 | 112240376 | 94223840 |
World | 2018 | 115924360 | 96989160 |
World | 2019 | 119808720 | 93028320 |
World | 2020 | 122711690 | 90592250 |
World | 2021 | 126035144 | 92177120 |
Data sources
Multiple sources compiled by World Bank (2024) – processed by Our World in Data. “Aquaculture” [dataset]. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (via World Bank), “World Development Indicators” [original data].