Data extracted in December 2025
Planned article update: December 2028
Highlights
In 2024, an estimated 98.6 billion eggs for were produced for consumption in the EU.
An estimated 91% of eggs for consumption produced in the EU in 2024 came from farms with more than 5 000 laying hens.
This article provides an overview of the poultry sector. The background information supports a better understanding of the available statistics, and the analysis highlights the main trends.
Poultry production and types of chicks
There are 3 kinds of poultry farming activity:
- the production of poultrymeat, by growing chicks and fattening poultry for slaughter
- the production of (non-fertilised) eggs for consumption, by keeping laying hens (or other fowls), collecting and selling eggs intended to be consumed or otherwise used, especially in the agri-food industry
- the production of eggs for hatching. These fertilised eggs provide the stock of chicks that are used by each of the 3 kinds of poultry farming, selected for each according to their genetic performance
Utility poultry chicks are intended for their meat or for laying eggs for consumption. Selection chicks refer to the future parents and grandparents of other utility poultry chicks.
It is important to remember that only female poultry can lay eggs. However, in some laying breeds, certain male chicks are also suitable for fattening and are raised as cockerels.
In 2024, 782 million eggs in the EU were placed in incubation to provide laying utility chicks, of which 336 million chicks were produced for this use along with a small number (44 000 chicks) that were kept as cockerels. A further 10.5 billion eggs were placed in incubation to become meat utility chicks, of which 8.5 billion became day-old chicks (80.8%).
Hatcheries
There are various types of enterprise involved in poultry production that include the packing centres that mark, sort and pack eggs for consumption, the processors of the eggs unfit for packing, and the hatcheries.
Hatcheries are establishments where eggs are incubated until they hatch and produce chicks. They are the starting point for poultry production. The type of chicks they produce (either to produce meat, eggs for consumption, or breeding poultry) is the first information available as an indicator of future production.
The through-flow in hatcheries involves placing eggs in incubators, monitoring the incubation (in setters) up to the point of hatching (in hatchers) and delivering chicks. At any one moment, hatchers have a mixture of newly-born chicks and soon-to-be hatched eggs. These activities are largely automated, but important investment and management know-how is required to ensure that incubations do not fail.
The number of eggs in incubators is limited by the capacity of the hatcheries, but it is also driven by sales of chicks, which in turn reflects the needs of poultry farms.
Structure of hatcheries
Hatchery capacity refers to the number of eggs that can be incubated at the same time in the setters. It does not include the eggs that are already in the hatchers. The capacity also depends on the species, because different eggs require different incubation periods.
For example, using the same equipment, a hatchery that can hold 10 000 chicken eggs can hold fewer than 4 000 goose eggs. This is because goose eggs need about 27 days in the setters, compared with 18 days for chicken eggs. A hatchery of this size could produce around 54 000 goslings per year, compared with about 203 000 chicks.
This example does not consider factors such as egg losses or the height of the incubation trays.
At EU country level, between 10 and 18 ‘day-old chicks’ are produced for every spot or place in the setter over the course of a year.
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Just over half of all hatcheries in the EU have a capacity of more than 500 000 incubation places. These large hatcheries were responsible for 95.5% of the 9.4 billion chicken eggs that were incubated in the EU in 2024.
The overwhelming majority (91.2%) of all eggs incubated were intended to be reared for the meat production sector in 2024 (Table 1). Note that not all the eggs placed in incubation resulted in ‘day-old chicks’ (see below).
Activity of hatcheries
The activity of hatcheries can be summarised by looking at the incubated eggs and ‘day-old chicks’ by species, breeding purpose and type of chicks (see Table 2). Data on these characteristics are provided by EU countries on a monthly basis.
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Poultrymeat
In 2024, the EU produced an estimated 14.1 million tonnes of poultrymeat , a sharp increase of 6.0% compared with 2023. This rise confirmed an upward trend; EU production in 2024 was 3.9 million tonnes higher than in 2009.
In 2024, the main poultrymeat producers were Poland (accounting for 20.5% of EU output, with 2.9 million tonnes), Spain (12.8%, 1.8 million tonnes), France (12.2%, 1.7 million tonnes), Germany (10.9%, 1.5 million tonnes) and Italy (9.8%, 1.4 million tonnes). With the exception of Germany, there were higher production levels of poultrymeat in 2024 in each of these principal producer countries, the sharpest rate of increase being in France (a provisional +12.3%).
Chicken accounts for the vast majority of poultrymeat produced in the EU (about 87% in 2024). Of the other poultrymeats, turkey (about 5% in 2024) and duck (about 4% in 2024) are the next largest, the remainder covering meats from guineafowl, geese and even ostriches, among others.
Eggs for consumption
Production of eggs for consumption
On agricultural holdings that produce eggs for consumption, ‘day-old chicks’ are grown to become laying hens that produce eggs for consumption. These eggs are collected and sold.
No EU-wide statistics are yet available on the production of eggs for consumption. EU countries have agreed on the concept of egg production, measured by the number of eggs leaving a laying workshop over a defined period. In 2017, 15 EU countries committed to providing these statistics either annually or, in the case of the countries with the smallest sectors, three times per decade.
In the EU, egg marketing is subject to the prior check and sorting of the eggs in ‘packing centres’. However, some eggs bypass this step if they are delivered directly to processors. Additionally, farmers can sell eggs directly to consumers but in limited quantities. EU countries can use data from packing centres or from farms. To fit with the farm gate concept, Denmark, Finland and Sweden measure egg production not only in terms of what is sorted in packing centres but also, where relevant, the eggs directly delivered to agri-food enterprises and to individual customers, as well as eggs that are exported.
Of the remaining 12 EU countries, Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Estonia, Croatia, Luxembourg, Portugal and Finland provide these data on a voluntary basis. Only Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria do not send statistics. From the reference year 2025 onwards, data collection will be obligatory under Regulation (EU) 2022/2379.
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On the basis of the data presented in Table 3 and on the number of laying hen places in the 27 EU countries, the EU produced an estimated (see methodological notes) 98.6 billion eggs for consumption in 2024. Data from the 23 EU countries with available data (Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria being unavailable), suggest a relatively steady upward growth in production over recent years, with the number of eggs in 2024 being about 4.5% higher than in 2021.
Production on farms with more than 5 000 laying hens account for the overwhelming majority of egg production (about 91% in 2024 - see Figure 1). Nevertheless, in some EU countries, agricultural holdings with only a few laying hens make a significant contribution to egg production; in Romania one half (50.5% of eggs for consumption) came from holdings with less than 5 000 hens, and the shares in Slovenia (20.2%), Poland (15.9%) and Croatia (14.9%) were also relatively high.
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Hatchery activity and eggs for consumption
In theory, the number of layer chicks delivered by hatcheries could a good predictor of future egg production, once the set of technical parameters is known (average age at first laying, laying period duration, laying yield, losses, etc.). However, Eurostat has no statistics on the monthly production of eggs for consumption, so this cannot be used.
There is generally a 2 month gap between the reporting of layer chicks hatching and them being settled as pullets into egg production at almost four months old. In theory, this 2 month window is an opportunity to use the data on the hatching of layer chicks for predicting the production of eggs for consumption. However, this would need to be complemented with foreign trade statistics on live chicks, which are only available later.
Selection chicks
Selection chicks (kept for breeding future utility chicks) represent less than 1% of ‘day-old chicks’. The numbers of selection chicks for breeding could be good predictors of the number of eggs from the next generation of utility chicks. However, the apparent lag is shorter than the time for growing selection chicks into pullets (see Figure 2). The correlation coefficient between the two series is r=62%, which indicates a moderate to strong positive correlation and therefore a significant link between hatchery egg placement and chick placement. Whilst the correlation is clear it is not perfect, suggesting that other factors also affect the relationship (hatchability rates, species differences, incubation management, etc.).
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Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
Eurostat collects a comprehensive set of poultry statistics, covering the annual structure and monthly activity of hatcheries, external trade in chicks, annual egg production for consumption on agricultural holdings, and poultry slaughtered in approved slaughterhouses. Additional information is also available from farm structure surveys and external trade data.
The poultry production cycle is short and highly volatile, which creates a challenge for statistical reporting. Delivering data before the end of the production cycle is especially testing for poultrymeat.
Legal basis
- Hatchery statistics are collected by Eurostat under market Regulation (EC) No 617/2008, on a monthly basis for the statistics on the activity of hatcheries and the foreign trade in chicks, and on an annual basis for the statistics on the structure of hatcheries.
- The 2017 ESS agreement on statistics on eggs for consumption was signed by 15 EU countries and lays down the references for producing comparable statistics on eggs for consumption. These statistics are transmitted annually or, for those EU countries with less than 3 million laying hens, three times per decade.
- Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008 covers statistics on livestock and meat, including monthly poultry slaughtering.
- Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 on statistics on agricultural input and output has applied from 1 January 2025. An implementing Regulation on animal production statistics is expected to cover the statistical requirements of the three regulations above.
Eurostat estimates
Eurostat only disseminates aggregated values for hatchery statistics, as more detailed calculations would pose issue of confidentiality; at a national level, one in every eight activities of hatcheries is confidential, and one in every four on the structure of hatcheries.
The EU estimate of the production of eggs for consumption was based on the number of laying hen places provided in administrative notifications to the Directorate General on Agriculture and Rural Development (eggs common market organisation).
Context
The sector is structured to distinguish between breeding poultry and utility poultry, the latter raised either for laying or for fattening. Not all production is market-oriented; some semi-subsistence farms primarily produce for own-consumption.
Chicken (Gallus gallus domestica) is the predominant species in the EU, providing most eggs and meat. Other species, such as turkeys, ducks, geese, and guineafowl, are also produced but are economically less significant. Species like ostriches and quails have minimal statistical relevance.
Explore further
Other articles
Database
- Agriculture (agri), see:
Poultry farming (apro_ec)
- Poultry - monthly data (apro_ec_poulm)
- Poultry - annual data (apro_ec_poula)
- Production of eggs for consumption and number of laying hens (apro_ec_egghen)
- Hatcheries - hens, annual data (apro_ec_strhen)
- Slaughtering in slaughterhouses - monthly data (apro_mt_pwgtm)