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Facts and figures on animal testing

Millions of animals are used and killed in scientific procedures every year.

Globally.

We estimate that at least 192.1 million animals were used for scientific purposes worldwide in 2015. This is the world’s most reliable figure to date.
This includes nearly 80 million experiments on animals as well as millions of other animals who are killed for their tissues, used to breed genetically modified animal strains and bred but not used.
We estimate that the top 10 animal testing countries in the world are China (20.5 million) Japan (15.0 million), the United States (15.6 million), Canada (3.6 million), Australia (3.2 million), South Korea (3.1 million), the United Kingdom (2.6 million), Brazil (2.2 million), Germany (2.0 million) and France (1.9 million), in that order.
In 2015, an estimated 207,724 tests using dogs and 158,780 tests using monkeys were conducted.
The top 10 users of dogs were: China, the United States, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany and India.
The top 10 users of monkeys were: the United States, China, Japan, Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, India and South Korea.

Europe

The latest report from the European Commission shows that 12.3 million experiments were conducted on animals across the EU in 2018.
The 2018 figures now include data from Norway, which was not included in previous statistical reports. They still include the UK as they had not left the EU in 2018. If Norway is excluded from the 2018 figures, the total number of uses of animals is 10.6 million, which represents a 2% decrease compared to 2017.
Despite increased public demand for a reduction in animal research, there has been little change (approximately 1% year on year) in the last 20 years.
According to the EU reports, the UK conducts the highest number of animal experiments in Europe (2.4 million in 2018). Germany is the second highest user completing 2.1 million experiments in 2018, while France is third with 1.9 million experiments that year.
There were 25,722 uses of dogs in 2018 with the UK (4,545 uses), France (4,219 uses) and Germany (3,979 uses) being the top 3 users.
There was a total of 11,194 uses of monkeys across the EU in 2018 with France (3,510 uses), Germany (3,278 uses) and the UK (3,207 uses) being the top 3 users.
Out of the total number of experiments conducted in the EU in 2018, 40% were for basic research purposes while only 16% were required by regulators.
Experiments are still being conducted for regulatory purposes in the EU where there are valid non-animal methods available. In 2018, there were 4,121 skin irritation tests, 880 eye irritation tests, 39,646 skin sensitisation tests, 30,453 pyrogenicity tests and 806,435 batch potency tests (a large proportion of which were likely to be tests for botox products). See more - Replace Animal Tests: The EU RAT List | Cruelty Free International

According to the latest Government figures, a total of 3.06 million (3,056,243) procedures on animals were completed in Great Britain in 2021.
Of these, 1.33 million (43%) related to the creation or breeding of genetically altered animals who were not used in further experiments.
The remaining 1.73 million (57%) were actual experiments on animals, which included 441,403 experiments (25%) that even the researchers considered had caused moderate or severe suffering to the animals involved.
Out of the total number of procedures conducted in GB in 2021, only 10% were required by law – the rest were conducted voluntarily.
A significant proportion of experiments are conducted in universities, often relying on taxpayer funding.
A total of 4,227 experiments were conducted on dogs in 2021, including 4,016 experiments on beagles and 211 experiments on other breeds.
A total of 2,795 experiments were conducted on monkeys in 2021, including 116 experiments on marmosets and tamarins, 2,561 experiments on cynomolgus macaques and 118 experiments on rhesus macaques.
In 2021, 90% of the monkeys used for the first time in experiments were imported from Africa or Asia.
There were 24 tests on industrial chemicals used in household products.
There was a significant increase in Lethal Dose 50 (LD50) and Lethal Concentration 50 (LC50) tests from 9,784 tests in 2020 to 11,758 tests in 2021 (up 20%). These cruel and outdated tests are designed to find the dose or concentration of a substance that kills half of the test animals.
Despite validated alternatives being available, there was an increase in skin irritation tests, from 11 in 2020 to 18 in 2021.
Tests in other key areas where there are validated alternatives have dropped significantly but animals are still being used: 357 skin sensitisation tests and 59,586 batch potency tests in mice (a large proportion of which were likely to be tests for botox products) were conducted in 2021. See more - Replace Animal Tests: The EU RAT List | Cruelty Free International
We celebrate that, for the first time, zero eye irritation tests on animals were conducted in GB in 2021.