1in1t

Live a life as a cow

LegendaryOdds: 1 in 1.2 trillion

About 1.5 billion cattle, almost all on farms. About 1.5 billion cattle are alive right now.

Sources: FAOSTAT live animals: about 1.5 billion cattle (2022).

Your life

  1. Day 1 · You are born on a ranch in Brazil. You stand within an hour.
  2. Month 6 · You are weaned and join the herd.
  3. Year 1 · You chew the cud for hours a day, with a stomach in four chambers.
  4. Month 20 · Most beef cattle are sent to slaughter at about this age.

Get rebornEvery number and its source

Questions

What are the odds of being reborn as a cow?

Odds: 1 in 1.2 trillion. About 1.5 billion cattle, almost all on farms. (FAOSTAT live animals: about 1.5 billion cattle (2022).)

What are my odds of being reborn as a human?

About 1 in 210 billion if any animal can be drawn. There are roughly 8.2 billion people, but around 1.3 sextillion copepods, 440 quintillion soil nematodes and 10 quintillion insects. Among mammals and birds only, the odds improve to about 1 in 21.

What is the most common animal on Earth?

By head count, tiny crustaceans called copepods (about 1.3 × 10²¹, an order-of-magnitude estimate), then soil nematodes (about 4.4 × 10²⁰, van den Hoogen et al. 2019). That is why the true-odds draw almost always makes you something small.

The odds, animal by animal

Copepod Soil nematode Insect Ant Antarctic krill Honey bee Fish Wild bird Bat Chicken Wild rodent Human House sparrow Dog Elephant Blue whale Giant panda