Cereal production
- Description
Cereals include wheat, rice, maize, barley, oats, rye, millet, sorghum, buckwheat, and mixed grains.
- Data source
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data
- Unit
- tonnes
- Date range
- 1961-2024
- Last updated
- 2026-02-25
- Next expected update
- 2027-02-25
- Managed by
- Pablo Rosado
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How did Our World in Data process this data?
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.
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Documentation from data sources
UN FAO
UN FAO
Item: Cereals, primary
Description: Cereals are generally of the gramineous family and, in the FAO concept, refer to crops harvested for dry grain only. Crops harvested green for forage, silage or grazingare classified as fodder crops. Also excluded are industrial crops, e.g. broom sorghum (Crude organic materials nes) and sweet sorghum when grown for syrup (Sugar crops nes). For international trade classifications, fresh cereals (other than sweet corn), whether or not suitable for use as fresh vegetables, are classified as cereals. Cereals are identified according to their genus. However, when two or more genera are sown and harvested as a mixture they should be classified and reported as "mixed grains". Production data are reported in terms of clean, dry weight of grains (12-14 percent moisture) in the form usually marketed. Rice, however, is reported in terms of paddy. Apart from moisture content and inedible substances such as cellulose, cereal grains contain, along with traces of minerals and vitamins, carbohydrates - mainly starches - (comprising 65-75 percent of their total weight), as well as proteins (6-12 percent) and fat (1-5 percent). The FAO definitions cover 17 primary cereals, of which one - white maize - is a component of maize. Each definition is listed along with its code, botanical name or names, and a short description. Cereal products derive either from the processing of grain through one or more mechanical or chemical operations, or from the processing of flour, meal or starch. Each cereal product is listed after the cereal from which it is derived.
Metric: Production
Description: Amount produced in the year.
Data sources
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – Production: Crops and livestock products
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – Production: Crops and livestock products
Crop and livestock statistics are recorded for 278 products, covering the following categories:
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Crops primary: Cereals, Citrus Fruit, Fiber Crops, Fruit, Oil Crops, Oil Crops and Cakes in Oil Equivalent, Pulses, Roots and Tubers, Sugar Crops, Treenuts and Vegetables. Data are expressed in terms of area harvested, production quantity and yield. Cereals: Area and production data on cereals relate to crops harvested for dry grain only. Cereal crops harvested for hay or harvested green for food, feed or silage or used for grazing are therefore excluded.
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Crops processed: Beer of barley; Cotton lint; Cottonseed; Margarine, short; Molasses; Oil, coconut (copra); Oil, cottonseed; Oil, groundnut; Oil, linseed; Oil, maize; Oil, olive, virgin; Oil, palm; Oil, palm kernel; Oil, rapeseed; Oil, safflower; Oil, sesame; Oil, soybean; Oil, sunflower; Palm kernels; Sugar Raw Centrifugal; Wine.
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Live animals: Animals live n.e.s.; Asses; Beehives; Buffaloes; Camelids, other; Camels; Cattle; Chickens; Ducks; Geese and guinea fowls; Goats; Horses; Mules; Pigeons, other birds; Pigs; Rabbits and hares; Rodents, other; Sheep; Turkeys.
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Livestock primary: Beeswax; Eggs (various types); Hides buffalo, fresh; Hides, cattle, fresh; Honey, natural; Meat (ass, bird nes, buffalo, camel, cattle, chicken, duck, game, goat, goose and guinea fowl, horse, mule, Meat nes, meat other camelids, Meat other rodents, pig, rabbit, sheep, turkey); Milk (buffalo, camel, cow, goat, sheep); Offals, nes; Silk-worm cocoons, reelable; Skins (goat, sheep); Snails, not sea; Wool, greasy.
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Livestock processed: Butter (of milk from sheep, goat, buffalo, cow); Cheese (of milk from goat, buffalo, sheep, cow milk); Cheese of skimmed cow milk; Cream fresh; Ghee (cow and buffalo milk); Lard; Milk (dry buttermilk, skimmed condensed, skimmed cow, skimmed dried, skimmed evaporated, whole condensed, whole dried, whole evaporated); Silk raw; Tallow; Whey (condensed and dry); Yogurt.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – Production: Crops and livestock products (2025).How to cite
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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: Cereal production”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser (2023) - “Agricultural Production”. Data adapted from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261014-114458/grapher/cereal-production.html [online resource] (archived on October 14, 2026).How to cite this data
How to cite this data
If you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in DataFull citation
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Cereal production – UN FAO” [dataset]. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Production: Crops and livestock products” [original data]. Retrieved October 14, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261014-114458/grapher/cereal-production.html (archived on October 14, 2026).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. This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
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