Brazil's Amazon north added 85% of its new cattle

Claim types Fact

IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística), Pesquisa da Pecuária Municipal, SIDRA table 3939, Efetivo dos rebanhos, bovinos (head, 31 December), latest year 2025, by state (27 units), read from IBGE via the progrss vault (GUIDELINES §4.11). Regions are IBGE's five macro-regions, summed from their states (progrss calculation). North = Rondônia, Acre, Amazonas, Roraima, Pará, Amapá, Tocantins, all inside the Legal Amazon (Mato Grosso and most of Maranhão are also in the Legal Amazon but sit in the Centre-West and Northeast regions). Million head, 2015 → 2025 (change): North 47.18 → 63.35 (+16.18); Northeast 29.09 → 37.27 (+8.17); Centre-West 72.71 → 72.16 (−0.54); Southeast 38.81 → 37.34 (−1.47); South 27.43 → 24.13 (−3.31); Brazil 215.22 → 234.25 (+19.03). The five regions cover every state, so their changes add up to Brazil's. North share of the herd: 14.4% (2000), 21.9% (2015), 27.1% (2024, the high), 27.0% (2025). The North's herd fell 1.2 million in 2025 (64.55 → 63.35) as Brazil's herd shrank; its share held flat. Brazil's herd peaked at 238.6 million in 2023. Pará 20.27 M (5th) → 25.56 M (2nd); it passed Minas Gerais in 2020 and Goiás in 2022; its herd was flat in 2025. This plate shows where the herd grew; it does not measure land use or deforestation (Interpretation not drawn).