Number of species threatened with extinction

Description: The IUCN Red List has assessed only a small share of the total known species in the world. This means the number of species threatened with extinction is likely to be a significant underestimate of the total number of species at risk. This is particularly true for understudied groups such as insects, plants and fungi. 'Threatened' species are those that are categorized as 'Critically endangered', 'Endangered' or 'Vulnerable' on the IUCN Red List.
Data source: International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Unit: species
Date range: 2025-2025
Last updated: 2026-01-05
Managed by: Fiona Spooner

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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.

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Data sources

International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species – IUCN Red List Summary Statistics Table 1a

Number of species evaluated in relation to the overall number of described species, and numbers of threatened species by major groups of organisms.

Retrieved on

January 5, 2026

Retrieved from

https://nc.iucnredlist.org/redlist/content/attachment_files/2025-1_RL_Table_1a.pdf

Citation

This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data.

International Union for Conservation of Nature. 2025. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2025-1. https://www.iucnredlist.org. Accessed on [27 March 2025]

How to cite

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: Number of species threatened with extinction”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Fiona Spooner, and Max Roser (2022) - “Biodiversity”. Data adapted from International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261102-112946/grapher/number-species-threatened.html [online resource] (archived on November 2, 2026).

How to cite this data

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

International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Number of species threatened with extinction” [dataset]. International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, “IUCN Red List Summary Statistics Table 1a” [original data]. Retrieved November 2, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261102-112946/grapher/number-species-threatened.html (archived on November 2, 2026).

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