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Data

The decline of global whale populations

About this data

Source
Pershing et al. (2010) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
August 28, 2019
Date range
1890–2001
Unit
whales

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Pershing et al. – The impact of whaling on the ocean carbon cycle: why bigger was better

Estimates of whale populations pre-whaling and in 2001 were published by Pershing et al. (2010), and originally sourced from Christensen (2006). See full references below.

The dates of pre-whaling differs depending on the whale species and oceanic region. This ranges from as far back as 1530 for Right whales. The most common "pre-whaling" date in the original source was in the late 19th and early 20th century. Here we have coded all pre-whaling dates as 1890 for consistency, but it should be noted that this date varies by species. The latest date – 2001 – is consistent across species.

All estimates are of the global total.

Retrieved on
August 28, 2019
Retrieved from
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0012444
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Pershing, A. J., Christensen, L. B., Record, N. R., Sherwood, G. D., & Stetson, P. B. (2010). The impact of whaling on the ocean carbon cycle: why bigger was better. PloS One, 5(8), e12444.

Estimates of whale populations pre-whaling and in 2001 were published by Pershing et al. (2010), and originally sourced from Christensen (2006). See full references below.

The dates of pre-whaling differs depending on the whale species and oceanic region. This ranges from as far back as 1530 for Right whales. The most common "pre-whaling" date in the original source was in the late 19th and early 20th century. Here we have coded all pre-whaling dates as 1890 for consistency, but it should be noted that this date varies by species. The latest date – 2001 – is consistent across species.

All estimates are of the global total.

Retrieved on
August 28, 2019
Retrieved from
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0012444
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Pershing, A. J., Christensen, L. B., Record, N. R., Sherwood, G. D., & Stetson, P. B. (2010). The impact of whaling on the ocean carbon cycle: why bigger was better. PloS One, 5(8), e12444.

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All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

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  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: The decline of global whale populations”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from Pershing et al.. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/whale-populations.html [online resource] (archived on May 11, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Pershing et al. (2010) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Pershing et al. (2010) – processed by Our World in Data. “The decline of global whale populations” [dataset]. Pershing et al., “The impact of whaling on the ocean carbon cycle: why bigger was better” [original data]. Retrieved May 11, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/whale-populations.html (archived on May 11, 2026).

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