A harmonized data set of ruminant livestock presence and grazing data for the European Union and neighbouring countries

Improving the sustainability of the European livestock sector requires recent data at high spatial resolutions. Only then can we analyse potential negative impacts of livestock related to ecosystem degradation, and positive ones such as preserving cultural landscapes through grazing. Data on livestock numbers in Europe are provided by the European statistical office but at a coarse spatial resolution aggregated to statistical regions like NUTS2 or even coarser. While data on a more detailed level, such as local administrative areas, are available from individual national statistical offices, a collection of harmonized data has not been available until now, limiting the use of livestock data in environmental and agricultural studies. We collected data from all European Union Member States and neighbouring countries, resulting in the most up to date and spatially explicit dataset on livestock numbers publicly available to all researchers. We provide data on livestock numbers for more than 70,000 administrative units in 43 countries and territories. In addition, we provide data on the share of cattle that are grazing.