Scotland has more sheep than people. In June 2013 the sheep population was 6.57 million on about 14,800 farms, according to the Scottish government.

Ewes used for breeding in the previous season accounted for 40% of the total, with rams to be used for breeding just 1%. Lambs made up the largest proportion with 47%, other sheep over one year old accounted for 12%.

Scotland has 5.3 million people according to the latest Census figures.

According to the FAOSTAT database of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the top five countries by number of heads of sheep (average from 1993 to 2013) were: mainland China (146.5 million heads), Australia (101.1 million), India (62.1 million), Iran (51.7 million), and the former Sudan (46.2 million). Approximately 540 million sheep are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide.

In 2013, the five countries with the largest number of heads of sheep were mainland China (175 million), Australia (75.5 million), India (53.8 million), the former Sudan (52.5 million), and Iran (50.2 million). In 2018 Mongolia has 30.2 million sheep. In 2013, the number of heads of sheep were distributed as follows: 44% in Asia, 28.2% in Africa; 11.2% in Europe, 9.1% in Oceania, 7.4% in the Americas.