Document type : Answer from the European Commission to the European Parliament
Question: Horses are multifunctional animals used for many purposes: they perform economic, agricultural, sporting and recreational functions. Horses have a significant economic, environmental and social impact. There are general European figures and estimates on the value of the sector, the number of equidae and the number of jobs in the sector, but there is a lack of sound and specific statistics on the number of horses per Member State and their distribution within the sector.
Detailed figures are needed not only to get a good overview of the sector, but also to identify shortcomings, which should lead to better decision-making through targeted measures.
1 Can the Commission provide figures on the number of horses per EU Member State per function (agriculture, professional use, recreation, therapy, private use, slaughter)?
2 Why are horses not included in Eurostat statistics?
3 What view does the Commission take of the proposal to commission a study to collect figures on the horse sector? Is the Commission planning such a study in the near future?
Answer : Eurostat does not collect statistical data on the total number of horses per use.
The aggregated number of horses, donkeys, mules and hinnies kept on agricultural holdings is available in the Farm Structure Survey for 2013 and 2016 in Eurostat’s database. These equidae are kept on the farm for meat production, as draught animals or as a leisure activity of the farm family. In the 2020-2026 Integrated Farm Statistics horses will be reported under the class ‘other animals’ as their economic importance for farms is very small.
Data on animals in Eurostat statistics applies to livestock as part of agricultural activities. Due to the vast majority of horses used under other economic activities than agriculture, attempts to cover the number of equidae within agricultural statistics can easily lead to false conclusions as the data can be interpreted as representing the total equidae population.
Eurostat is not planning any study to collect data on overall number of horses.
Administrative data on numbers of horses should exist at national level. At present, there is a legal requirement to identify equidae, but not to register them. In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/429 and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2035, the identification and registration of equidae, the registration of establishments keeping equidae and the establishment of a database in each Member State will be mandatory. This will allow generating substantiated data on the equine population in the Union for animal health purposes.compulsory. This will allow the generation of substantiated data on the equine population in the Union for animal health purposes.
