Updated November 2026
Between 30 million and 46 million turkeys are killed in the U.S. for Thanksgiving each year, plus millions more who die from disease and the conditions they’re raised in before they reach a slaughterhouse.
On Thursday, Nov. 26, American families will gather to reflect on the year and celebrate what they are grateful for. At the center of most of those tables sits the body of a bird who once had thoughts, feelings and a will to live. Before you sit down this year, here is what the numbers say about the turkeys who are eaten for Thanksgiving.
How many turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving each year?
For nearly two decades, the industry’s own figure has held steady. Since 2007, the National Turkey Federation has estimated that Americans eat around 46 million turkeys on Thanksgiving. In 2025, the trade group lowered its estimate, projecting that close to 30 million turkeys would be eaten nationwide for the holiday.
That puts the yearly U.S. toll somewhere between 30 million and 46 million turkeys for a single meal. Those birds are part of a much larger system. USDA forecasts that 199 million turkeys will be raised in the United States in 2026, a 3 percent increase over 2025.
The turkey on your plate also likely died long before November. Because slaughterhouses kill turkeys at a fairly steady pace all year, most Thanksgiving birds are slaughtered months ahead and stored frozen.
How many turkeys are killed across the world?
Thanksgiving is celebrated mainly in the United States and Canada, so nearly all Thanksgiving turkeys come from those two countries. According to Turkey Farmers of Canada, shoppers bought 2.1 million whole turkeys for Thanksgiving 2024.
Add that to the U.S. figure, and roughly 32 million to 48 million turkeys are killed worldwide each year for Thanksgiving.
Across the full calendar, the global number is far higher. According to FAOSTAT data compiled by Humane World for Animals, about 664 million turkeys were slaughtered worldwide in 2017.
How many turkeys die for Thanksgiving?
When you ask how many turkeys die for Thanksgiving, the honest answer is tens of millions slaughtered for the meal, plus millions more who die along the way in a system built to produce them.
The slaughter count leaves out millions of birds who die before they ever reach a processing plant. Factory farms pack thousands of turkeys into crowded sheds, conditions in which disease spreads quickly. When avian flu reaches a flock, the industry kills every bird in the barn.
According to USDA, in 2025, more than 2.2 million turkeys were affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza, and the number of turkeys raised fell to the lowest level in 40 years. Nearly 23 million turkeys across the country have been killed because of the virus since 2022. Official counts often miss these animals entirely. USDA’s turkeys-raised figures exclude birds lost to disease or destroyed.
What is life like for a farmed turkey?
A farmed turkey’s life begins in confusion, crowded among thousands of other chicks. None of them will ever meet their mothers or grow and develop as they would in nature. They spend their lives confined in dark, dirty, crowded sheds. To keep stressed, crowded birds from injuring one another, the industry cuts off parts of their beaks and toes without pain relief.
As the weeks pass, these birds grow at an unnatural rate. Decades of selective breeding have produced turkeys so heavy that many struggle to stand. Just as in humans, extreme weight can lead to heart failure and other life-threatening conditions, and many turkeys die before slaughter.
This Thanksgiving, think about the basic comforts denied to the billions of animals we share this planet with. The breeding, confinement and slaughter of turkeys, pigs, cows, chickens and fish causes suffering on a scale that is hard to imagine. For these animals, there is nothing to be thankful for.
What can we do to protect turkeys?
You can help end this violence and build a better world for people and animals alike. When you go vegan, you stop supporting the exploitation and abuse of animals. You also shrink your contribution to pollution and climate change and help reduce the risk of the next pandemic, a risk that grows every time a virus like avian flu tears through a crowded factory farm.
Go vegan, and no turkey will die for your Thanksgiving ever again. Choosing a different centerpiece may take a little courage when everyone around you treats turkey as tradition. But the inconvenience of changing a habit is small next to everything a turkey endures before reaching the table. Every plant-based meal you serve is a decision you can feel proud of.
If you believe animals deserve compassion and respect, this year is the time to act on it. Give turkeys something to be thankful for this November.
Go vegan this Thanksgiving, and put a plant-based roast like Tofurky at the center of your table.