The number of ants on Earth has a mass greater than all birds and mammals combined

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September 21st, 2022

In this photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, yellow crazy ants are seen in a bait testing efficacy trial at the Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in December, 2015. An invasive species known as the yellow crazy ant has been eradicated from the remote U.S. atoll in the Pacific. (Robert Peck/AP)

Robert Peck / Robert Peck

For every human on Earth, there’s estimated to be about 2.5 million ants – or 20 quadrillion in total.

A new study published by researchers at both the University of Hong Kong and University of Würzburg in Germany attempts to count the total number of ground-dwelling and tree-dwelling ants. The final figure is equal to 1 trillion times 20, and the insects’ total mass exceeds that of all birds and mammals combined, and makes up about a fifth of humans’ total biomass.

And that’s just a conservative estimate.

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