Michael Windsor
Tracking the number of hens spared from cages is complicated. Here’s a look at some of the complexities.
Recently, a colleague and I were digging into some data about the US egg-laying “flock”—the industry term for the number of egg-laying hens who are currently trapped in factory farms across the country. As you can imagine, this number matters a lot to us. We are constantly monitoring the number of hens who have already been spared from cruel battery cages to determine exactly how much of an impact our organization, thanks to supporters like you, is making for hens.
We noticed an interesting change in the historical data, detailed below. Along with sharing the change, I thought this would be a good opportunity to explain how—and why—we track this data so closely.
How and why we track the cage-free “flock”
Our movement has already influenced hundreds of companies and dozens of states to end the extreme confinement of hens. (Take a moment to pat yourself on the back, because that’s a direct result of pressure from people like you.) But the work doesn’t stop there.
A corporate cage-free commitment is just the first step. We also hold companies accountable—making sure that they actually follow through on their commitments, and that hens are actually spared from the misery of life in a cage.
Food corporations (brands like Dunkin’, CVS, and others) source their eggs from “producers”—the companies that raise laying hens to produce eggs in massive warehouses. It’s a matter of supply and demand—as demand for cage-free eggs increases, producers must start supplying more and more eggs from hens outside of cages. Ultimately, our goal is to guide the entire egg industry to shift away from cruel battery cages using this method.
And this strategy works. Really well. We’ve been closely tracking the growing size of the US cage-free flock as reported by the US Department of Agriculture, which surveys egg producers and publicly reports data about the egg industry. The number of hens spared from cages has dramatically increased over the past two decades—and this year, for the first time ever, the percentage of hens living outside cages surpassed 40%. In 2023, according to an industry report, nearly half of egg producers actually tore down cages. The future really is cage-free, and the entire egg industry is shifting to get there.
Is it more important to track the cage-free flock than to track the hens still in cages?
That’s a great question, and we do track that number as well. However, since we’re focused on ensuring companies make and follow through on their cage-free commitments, we can be more confident that our work is directly fueling the growth of the cage-free flock. To add to that, the growing size of the cage-free flock is what allows companies to fulfill their cage-free commitments, whether or not the number of hens in cages is decreasing.
The good news is, the number of hens in cages has dropped dramatically since the USDA started reporting this number. In December of 2012, they reported that 265.5 million hens were being kept in cages. Over the last decade, that number plummeted to 186.5 million. That means an astonishing 79 million fewer hens have to endure a life in a cage each year in the US.
A change in historical flock data
My colleague and I noticed that, sometime between 2019-2021, the USDA changed the way they were reporting historical data about the US cage-free flock. Previously, they’d shared that about 6% of hens were out of cages in 2012-2014, 18.4% out of cages in 2018, and so on (as shown in the red line on the chart below). Starting around 2021, they began sharing new historical data—showing that a higher percentage of hens were already spared from cages from 2012 onward (as shown in the blue line). You can see that the new data results in a more gradual slope of progress over the last 16 years.
Looking at the graph below, you can see that the new data results in a more gradual slope of progress from 2012 to 2019.
We reached out to data experts in the animal welfare space, as well as representatives from the USDA, to learn more about what might have caused this change. Based on those inquiries, we learned that the USDA underwent a reorganization in 2012, which resulted in the Egg Markets Report survey being sent to a larger pool of egg producers—meaning the collection of data became more comprehensive.
We can logically conclude that changes that the USDA made to the survey could have provided more comprehensive data and/or historical data from previously unsurveyed producers. Overall, the new industry data likely provides a more accurate look, and we will use the updated data going forward.
Why do we use USDA data in the first place?
It’s important to note that the animal agriculture industry is notoriously private about its operations. From strict security measures to “ag-gag” laws that make it illegal to document conditions inside farms, Big Ag has fought to keep systemic animal abuse under wraps. It’s been difficult for advocacy groups to gain access to industry information, which is why undercover investigators have been such essential contributors to the movement.
It’s difficult to get any numbers from the industry, and the USDA data is a self-reported estimate. At the same time, it’s the best we have. While these numbers may not be exact, they still represent millions of animals who are spared from a life of extreme confinement—and illustrate a widespread industry shift away from once-ubiquitous battery cages.
Help drive change for chickens
Four out of every ten chickens are now spared from cages. And that’s huge. But, as you know, we still have so much further to go for animals.
Will you help us pressure more corporations to end cruel cages—and eventually eliminate battery cages from the face of the planet?
