Honey Bee Population Statistics 2026: Global Hive Counts by Country
The global honeybee population is not collapsing — at least not in aggregate. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the number of managed honeybee colonies worldwide has grown roughly 20% since 1990, reaching an estimated 100 million hives. This global increase masks dramatic regional variation: Asia's managed hives have surged while North America and parts of Europe have seen colony counts decline or stagnate. Meanwhile, wild and feral honeybee populations — which provide ecosystem services beyond what managed hives can replace — are estimated to have declined significantly in most regions. This page compiles the best available data on managed honeybee counts by country, regional trends, the relationship between managed and wild populations, and what the numbers tell us about the true state of the world's honeybees.
Global Managed Hive Count
The aggregate story of managed honeybee populations is one of global growth driven overwhelmingly by Asia. Understanding this headline number is essential context for interpreting regional declines.
The FAO data should be interpreted with important caveats. Reporting standards vary significantly by country — some nations conduct formal agricultural censuses, while others submit estimates. China, India, and several other major beekeeping nations update their numbers infrequently. Additionally, FAO counts include both Apis mellifera (European/Western honeybee) and Apis cerana (Eastern/Asian honeybee) hives. A. cerana management systems are often smaller-scale and less standardized than Western commercial operations, introducing additional uncertainty into global comparisons. — UN FAO FAOSTAT Methodology Notes, 2024
Hive Counts by Country
The distribution of managed honeybee hives is heavily skewed toward a small number of countries. India, China, Turkey, and Iran together account for roughly 37% of global managed hives.
Continuing the top ten, Ethiopia (~5M hives) and Russia (~3M) represent Africa and the former Soviet bloc respectively. Argentina (~3M) leads the Americas after the U.S., driven by an alfalfa-based honey export sector that produces over 60,000 tonnes annually. South Korea (~2.4M) has seen explosive growth in hobbyist beekeeping, with colony counts doubling since 2010. Other notable countries include Mexico (~2.2M), Germany (~1.6M), France (~1.2M), Spain (~2.3M), and Brazil (~1.7M). — UN FAO FAOSTAT, 2023; National apiculture reports
The United States reports approximately 2.7 million managed honeybee colonies as of 2023-2024, placing the U.S. around 12th globally. This number represents a significant decline from the estimated 5.9 million colonies in 1947 — a 54% reduction over 75 years — but is relatively stable compared to the 1980s and 1990s when colony counts dipped below 2.5 million. — USDA NASS / USDA ERS, 2024
Asia: The World's Beekeeping Powerhouse
Asia's dominance of global beekeeping is both a numbers story and a species story. While Europe and North America rely on Apis mellifera, Asia's mix of A. cerana, A. mellifera, and several other native Apis species creates a fundamentally different beekeeping landscape.
Asia's managed honeybee hives have grown by an estimated 35-40% since 2000, driven by increasing agricultural demand for pollination services, government support programs (particularly in China and India), and the expansion of beekeeping into non-traditional areas. China alone added roughly 2-3 million hives between 2000 and 2020 to meet the pollination needs of its expanding fruit and vegetable production. — UN FAO FAOSTAT / Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, 2023
India's managed beekeeping sector has experienced particularly rapid growth in the past decade, driven by the National Beekeeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) launched in 2020 with an allocation of ₹500 crore (~$60M USD). The program provides subsidies for hive purchases, training for new beekeepers, and honey processing infrastructure. India's hive count has increased from approximately 7 million in 2015 to over 12 million by 2024. — Indian Ministry of Agriculture / National Beekeeping Board, 2024
An important factor in Asia's data is the role of Apis cerana (the Asian honeybee), which is kept in traditional hives and log gums at millions of small-scale operations. Many A. cerana hives go uncounted in formal agricultural statistics, meaning Asia's real managed hive count may be significantly higher than FAO estimates. Conversely, A. cerana colonies are generally smaller in population than modern A. mellifera hives, so hive-count comparisons do not directly translate to bee-population or honey-output comparisons. — Potts et al., Journal of Apicultural Research, 2020
North America: Stagnation & Replacement
North America's managed honeybee population tells a story of stagnation maintained only by constant replacement — a fragile equilibrium requiring significant annual economic investment.
The U.S. managed colony count has been essentially flat at ~2.7 million +/- 200,000 colonies since 2010. This stability is deceptive: annual loss rates above 40% mean beekeepers must produce or purchase approximately 1.1-1.2 million replacement colonies every year just to keep the national count from dropping. The industry's ability to sustain this replacement rate depends on queen producers and nuc suppliers — primarily in California, Georgia, and Hawaii — maintaining high-volume output. — Bee Informed Partnership / USDA NASS, 2020-2024
Canada's beekeeping sector has maintained rough stability in colony counts despite challenges. The 2022 Canadian winter loss survey reported 45% annual losses — the worst on record — driven by a poor fall forage season compounded by late-season varroa pressure. However, rapid replacement from domestic and U.S.-sourced nucs and packages brought the managed count back to ~690,000 within the same season. — Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists (CAPA), 2023
Europe: Recovery in Some, Decline in Others
European honeybee populations show a mixed picture. The European Union's 2013 ban on outdoor neonicotinoid use is frequently cited as contributing to colony recovery, though the causal link is debated and data varies widely by country.
The COLOSS network (an international honeybee research collaboration) conducts standardized annual loss surveys across European countries. Their 2022-2023 survey reported an average winter loss rate of 12-14% across participating European countries — significantly lower than the U.S. rate of 45.5% for the same period. Lower varroa pressure in cooler climates, stricter pesticide regulations, and different beekeeping practices (fewer migratory operations, more stationary wintering) are cited as likely factors. — COLOSS Survey, 2023
Eastern Europe presents a more mixed picture. Poland (~1.1M hives) and Romania (~1.2M) have seen steady increases driven by EU agricultural subsidies that support beekeeping. Ukraine (~1M hives pre-war, likely reduced since 2022) was a major honey exporter. Russia (~3M hives) remains Europe's largest beekeeper overall but data reliability is limited. The United Kingdom (~300,000 managed colonies) has seen a surge in hobbyist beekeeping since 2010, adding approximately 100,000 colonies. — COLOSS National Reports, 2023; Ukrainian Beekeepers Association, 2023
Wild & Feral Honeybee Populations
While managed colony counts are tracked by national statistics, the size of wild and feral honeybee populations is largely unknown. The available evidence suggests significant declines driven by varroa, habitat loss, and pesticide exposure — with consequences for ecosystem pollination that managed hives cannot fully offset.
Feral honeybee colonies in the United States were estimated to have declined by 50-90% since the arrival of varroa mites in the late 1980s. Before varroa, feral colonies were abundant across much of the country — particularly in the Southeast and Midwest — providing a substantial population of unmanaged pollinators. Post-varroa, feral colonies largely disappeared from northern states, surviving primarily in warmer southern regions where populations persist despite mite pressure through frequent swarming. — Seeley, "The Lives of Bees," Princeton University Press, 2019; USDA ARS, 2020
In Europe, wild honeybee populations have fared even worse. Truly wild (never-managed) Apis mellifera colonies are now found in significant numbers primarily in remote forests of eastern Europe — particularly the Białowieża Forest in Poland and parts of the Russian Far East. Western Europe's wild honeybees are considered functionally extinct in most managed landscapes, with surviving populations limited to isolated nature reserves. — Jaffe et al., PLOS ONE, 2010; COLOSS, 2022
Research by Thomas Seeley and others at Cornell University has documented Arnot Forest in upstate New York as one of the few well-studied surviving feral populations in North America. The study found feral colony density ranging from 0.3 to 1.5 colonies per km², compared to estimated pre-varroa densities of 2-6 per km² — a reduction of roughly 75% locally. These surviving feral colonies appear to have developed some degree of varroa resistance through natural selection, a finding with implications for breeding programs. — Seeley, "The Lives of Bees," 2019
Africanized Honey Bee Range Expansion
Africanized honey bees (AHB) — a hybrid of the African subspecies Apis mellifera scutellata and European honeybees — continue to expand their range northward in the United States, altering the population dynamics of managed and feral bees across a growing geographic area.
AHB currently occupies 9 southern U.S. states: Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida. The hybrid's range expands approximately 100-200 km per year, carried by swarm migration and queen drift. AHB colonies are significantly more defensive, more resistant to varroa (due to better hygienic behavior), and produce less honey per colony than European stocks — making them a management challenge for commercial beekeeping but demonstrating that feral populations can persist even under high varroa pressure. — USDA ARS Africanized Honey Bee Research, 2023
In areas where AHB has become established, the feral honeybee population increases significantly because AHB swarms more frequently and survives better without treatment. However, commercial beekeepers in AHB zones must use requeening and drone-flooding strategies to maintain European stock genetics in their managed colonies. The economic impact of AHB management is estimated at 10-15% higher labor costs for operations within the established range. — USDA ARS San Benito Lab, 2023; Texas A&M Honey Bee Lab, 2022
Annual Loss Rates vs. Replacement
One of the most important distinctions in honeybee population data is the difference between colony count (stock) and colony survival rate (flow). A population can remain stable only if replacement matches losses.
The relationship between loss rates and replacement has global implications. High-loss regions like the U.S. and Canada can only maintain stable colony counts because of the existence of robust queen and nuc production industries — particularly in warmer regions with longer breeding seasons. If climate change disrupts these production zones (e.g., California's drought reducing forage for queen-rearing operations), the replacement pipeline constricts, and national colony counts could drop rapidly. This dependency is the most fragile point in the North American beekeeping system. — USDA ARS Honey Bee Health Research, 2023
In Asia, replacement rates are lower despite higher overall hive counts — likely because smaller-scale management of A. cerana and traditional hive types creates less stress on individual colonies, resulting in lower proportional losses. The COLOSS network has called for standardized global loss surveys to better understand these regional differences, but funding and coordination challenges remain significant. — COLOSS / UNESCO, 2023
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- Beekeeping Guides — Practical advice for beekeepers of all levels
HiveMindGuide. (2026). Honey Bee Population Statistics 2026: Global Hive Counts by Country. Retrieved from https://hivemindguide.com/stats/honey-bee-population-statistics-2026
Frequently Asked Questions
How many honeybee hives are there in the world?
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates approximately 100 million managed honeybee hives worldwide as of 2023-2024. This number includes both Apis mellifera (European honeybee) and Apis cerana (Asian honeybee) colonies. Global hive counts have grown roughly 20% since 1990, driven primarily by Asian expansion. However, this global increase masks significant regional declines, particularly in wild and feral bee populations.
Which country has the most honeybees?
India has the highest number of managed honeybee hives globally at approximately 12 million, followed by China at 10 million, Turkey at 8.2 million, and Iran at 7 million. The United States ranks around 12th with 2.7 million managed colonies. Asia as a whole holds about 60% of the world's managed honeybee hives, reflecting the region's massive agricultural pollination demands and long tradition of beekeeping.
How many honeybees are there in the United States?
The United States has approximately 2.7 million managed honeybee colonies, according to USDA NASS data. This represents a 54% decline from the peak of 5.9 million colonies in 1947. However, the population has been relatively stable since 2010, maintained by an aggressive replacement cycle — U.S. beekeepers must produce or purchase roughly 1.1-1.2 million new colonies each year to compensate for annual loss rates exceeding 40%.
Are wild honeybees in decline?
Yes, wild and feral honeybee populations have declined dramatically across most of their range. In the United States, feral colonies are estimated to have fallen by 50-90% since varroa mites arrived in the late 1980s. In Western Europe, truly wild Apis mellifera colonies are considered functionally extinct in most managed landscapes. The exceptions are areas where Africanized honey bees have become established, as AHB swarms more frequently and survives better without treatment, increasing feral densities.
Is the global honeybee population actually increasing?
The managed honeybee population is increasing globally — up roughly 20% since 1990 to approximately 100 million hives — but this is entirely driven by Asia, particularly India and China. North America has seen a 54% decline from peak colony counts, and Europe is roughly stable. Crucially, wild and feral honeybees — which provide free pollination services — have declined severely. The increase in managed hives does not compensate for the loss of wild pollinators and comes with economic costs: U.S. beekeepers must replace ~44% of colonies annually just to maintain current numbers.
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