US Egg Production Data Set

Tracking the capability of the egg production industry to supply the food industry with enough cage-free eggs to meet retailers' and restaurants' animal welfare commitments is important to industry groups and farm animal advocacy organizations alike. In this project, we synthesize an analysis-ready data set that tracks cage-free hens and the supply of cage-free eggs relative to the overall numbers of hens and table eggs in the United States. The data set is based on reports produced by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which are published weekly or monthly. The data will be updated periodically as new USDA reports are released. We supplement these data with definitions and a taxonomy of egg products drawn from USDA and industry publications. The data include flock size (both absolute and relative) and egg production of cage-free hens as well as all table-egg-laying hens in the US, collected to understand the impact of the industry's cage-free transition on hens. Data coverage ranges from December 2007 to present. Initial analysis of cage-free trends shows that, as of the most recent version of this report, 29.2% of all table-egg-laying hens lived in cage-free systems. This figure represents an increase of 26 percentage points over the entire sample period of December 2007 to February 2021.

Read more in the full report and download the data and code. The report is also available in Japanese.

Revised March 8, 2021