There are Exactly This Many Goats in America

There were 2,621,514 goats in the United States as of 2012, the year of the most recent USDA Agricultural Census. If America’s goats were their own state, its population would be larger than that of Wyoming, Vermont, D.C. and North Dakota — combined. This is what all those goats look like on a map.

While our national goat herd shrunk somewhat between 2007 and 2012 — from 3.1 million to 2.6 million — taking a longer view the trend in goat production tends upward. Back in 1982, for instance, the U.S. produced only 1.7 million goats.

Aside from meat, goats are making their mark on the culture in other ways too. There are currently 3.2 million YouTube videos relating to goats. Last year saw the release of the video game Goat Simulator. 28 million people have watched this video of goats yelling like humans. In short, goats are pretty much everywhere.