New Zealand’s ratio of sheep to humans at lowest point in 170 years

New Zealand’s ratio of sheep to people has dropped below five to one for the first time since national population records began in the late 1850s. The vast ovine herds that outnumber human New Zealanders are a long-running joke outside the country; one of a few nuggets of information about New Zealand – alongside its links to The Lord of the Rings and Jacinda Ardern – that is know by the rest of the world. The country once had enough sheep to provide a small flock for every person, with the ratio peaking at 22 sheep for every human in the early 1980s. But with international wool markets in long decline, and forestry emerging as a more lucrative use of the land, sheep numbers in New Zealand have been dropping. National data released this week showed the national flock was 25.3m at June 2022 – a drop of 400,000, or 2% compared with the year before. With New Zealand’s estimated human population at 5.15 million, it was the lowest ratio of sheep to people since the 1850s, when national…