Skip to content
Nations Inquiry — home

Data for 1978

Fisheries and Aquaculture Production, 1978

1978, as FAO’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

This is how much fish, shellfish and other aquatic animals a country catches at sea and in rivers and lakes, or farms, in a year, in tonnes of live weight. It is FAO's global production record, kept for every country since 1950, with wild capture and aquaculture stored side by side.

Fisheries and Aquaculture Production, 1978 covers 190 countries on 4 measures. Japan is highest, at 10,213,560; 7 countries share the lowest reading, 0. The middle country reads 15,791. Against 1977, 169 values changed (116 up, 53 down), the same countries are covered.

Download CSVCite this year
Share

Share this page

Fisheries and Aquaculture Production · Data for 1978

HighestJapan

10,213,560

Lowest7 countries share it

0

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end.

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Fisheries and Aquaculture Production, 1978, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 190 countries · select a heading to sort

Fisheries and Aquaculture Production, 1978: every country, as published by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
JapanJPNEastern Asia10,213,5609,681,159532,401638,625
ChinaCHNEastern Asia4,614,8073,415,7151,199,0921,823,815
United StatesUSANorthern America3,474,1143,315,319158,795160,761
PeruPERSouth America3,443,3793,442,749630326
NorwayNORNorthern Europe2,593,7982,588,1535,645121,221
IndiaINDSouthern Asia2,309,7092,014,855294,854—
ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia2,100,3821,969,607130,7751,299
South KoreaKOREastern Asia2,093,9731,882,190211,783258,857
ChileCHLSouth America1,927,1091,926,77133860,000
DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe1,750,7691,734,70916,060—
IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia1,630,0571,473,271156,78638,101
IcelandISLNorthern Europe1,566,7721,566,7492312,270
SpainESPSouthern Europe1,542,1471,306,647235,5006,768
PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia1,499,3131,359,220140,09390,338
CanadaCANNorthern America1,372,8421,368,8044,03835,308
United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe1,018,7071,017,81988896,964
South AfricaZAFSouthern Africa1,013,5761,013,5621425,907
TaiwanTWNEastern Asia978,258718,783259,47512,882
North KoreaPRKEastern Asia949,810946,0003,810254,196
FranceFRAWestern Europe812,282648,389163,89347,570
MexicoMEXCentral America794,495789,6544,84136,739
BrazilBRASouth America754,655753,5231,132—
MalaysiaMYSSouth-eastern Asia688,229629,17159,058—
BangladeshBGDSouthern Asia646,895564,13582,760—
GermanyDEUWestern Europe625,086589,19335,893—

02In 1978

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline, then the highest and lowest on each other measure.

Highest

  1. Japan10,213,560
  2. China4,614,807
  3. United States3,474,114
  4. Peru3,443,379
  5. Norway2,593,798

Lowest

  1. Timor-Lesteshared0
  2. San Marinoshared0
  3. Palestineshared0
  4. Luxembourgshared0
  5. Liechtensteinshared0

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 15,791. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

  • Capture fisheries (tonnes, live weight)

    HighestJapan9,681,159

    Lowest8 share it

    Middle country: 15,523

  • Aquaculture (tonnes, live weight)

    HighestChina1,199,092

    Lowest104 share it

    Middle country: 0

  • Algae, capture and farmed (tonnes, wet weight; not in the total)

    HighestChina1,823,815

    Lowest7 share it

    Middle country: 6,768

031977 → 1978

Since 1977

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 169values changed, of 190 in both
  • 116 · 53rose · fell
  • 21unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

  • Norway3,407,414 → 2,593,798−813,616
  • China4,817,097 → 4,614,807−202,290
  • Panama239,751 → 140,097−99,654
  • Thailand2,189,966 → 2,100,382−89,584
  • Poland663,589 → 581,025−82,564

04Caveats

Read before you use

How values are stored

  • One year of the 2026 release

    Every year in this series comes from FAO’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method, so a change from one year to the next is not a revision. It can differ from what was first published for 1978.

  • 177 distinct values among 190

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 7 countries share 0. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • 151 empty cells

    An empty cell means the publisher gave no figure. It is never a zero.

05The files

Download and cite

Licence in full

What this site changed: Reshaped to one row per country, with its ISO code; no value recalculated, rescaled or rounded. In full

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (1978). Fisheries and Aquaculture Production, 1978 [data set], describing 1978. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/fish-production/1978

0675 held

Other years