How many ants are there on Earth? The number is so large we didn't put it in this headline
The closest thing so far to an ant census has been conducted by researchers at the University of Hong Kong.
Ready to know how many ants there are on Earth? 20,000,000,000,000,000. That’s right, and that’s a conservative estimate, the researchers said.
In a study published this week in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, scientists said they analyzed nearly 500 ant population studies from around the globe – spanning all the continents and types of habitats – to determine that 20 quadrillion (15 more zeros) ants inhabit the planet.
That’s roughly 2.5 million ants per person on Earth (the human population is roughly 7.8 billion, according to the World Bank).
The figure is between two and 20 times higher than previous world ant population estimates, researchers said. The study represents one of the first “systematic, evidence-based” estimates, wrote Mark Wong, a study co-author who is affiliated with the schools of biological sciences at The University of Hong Kong and The University of Western Australia, in a synopsis of the research on Phys.org.
The team conducted tedious field work in its research, collecting samples of ants using standard trap methods that allowed them to make more accurate extrapolations and fewer assumptions as previous estimates had.
In total, the world’s ants have a biomass of 12 million tons of carbon, the study found.
That’s larger than the combined biomass of wild birds and mammals, according to the study, and equals one-fifth the total biomass of humans. But carbon only makes up about half of an ant’s weight, so the total mass of ants is actually much larger, researchers said.
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The study also produced new insights into the tiny creatures. It found that ants are unevenly distributed around the world, with tropical regions and forests seeing the strongest concentrations, Wong wrote. And more ants lived in dry regions than expected, but fewer lived in human-inhabited areas.
Scientists said their count only covered surface level ants, not underground or tree-dwelling ants, meaning the number of ants on the planet is likely much higher.
There are some 15,000 different species of ant, researchers said, and they all play a crucial role in the ecosystem.
“Among other roles, ants aerate the soil, disperse seeds, break down organic material, create habitat for other animals and form an important part of the food chain,” Wong wrote.
He also noted dwindling insect populations in recent years due to climate change, and added, “it's in humanity's interest to monitor ant populations.”