Skip to content
Nations Inquiry — home

Data for 2012

Fisheries and Aquaculture Production, 2012

2012, 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, 2012 covers 220 countries on 4 measures. China is highest, at 53,325,108; 3 countries share the lowest reading, 0. The middle country reads 37,349. Against 2011, 205 values changed (115 up, 90 down), 2 countries joined.

Download CSVCite this year
Share

Share this page

Fisheries and Aquaculture Production · Data for 2012

HighestChina

53,325,108

Lowest3 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, 2012, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 220 countries · select a heading to sort

Fisheries and Aquaculture Production, 2012: every country, as published by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
ChinaCHNEastern Asia53,325,10815,188,65738,136,451.014,201,444
IndiaINDSouthern Asia9,081,1204,871,6424,209,478.033,002
IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia8,923,2685,855,6083,067,659.86,522,495
VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia5,608,4802,523,6733,084,807.019,694
United StatesUSANorthern America5,488,9785,068,592420,386.07,120
PeruPERSouth America4,921,3584,849,21172,146.83,695
RussiaRUSEastern Europe4,476,1704,331,299144,871.08,181
JapanJPNEastern Asia4,290,9673,657,920633,047.0539,268
ChileCHLSouth America3,642,9222,571,5011,071,421.0440,161
NorwayNORNorthern Europe3,462,7682,141,6481,321,119.2140,998
BangladeshBGDSouthern Asia3,261,7811,535,7151,726,066.0—
ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia3,000,3471,727,6471,272,700.00
PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia2,993,6302,202,736790,894.01,751,476
MyanmarMMRSouth-eastern Asia2,847,3991,962,230885,169.03,200
South KoreaKOREastern Asia2,150,4971,663,597486,900.01,032,449
MalaysiaMYSSouth-eastern Asia1,780,6671,477,281303,385.9331,490
MexicoMEXCentral America1,718,7771,575,030143,746.65,725
IcelandISLNorthern Europe1,456,1031,448,6727,431.318,079
TaiwanTWNEastern Asia1,413,120907,178505,942.03,733
EgyptEGYNorthern Africa1,371,975354,2371,017,738.0—
BrazilBRASouth America1,298,740818,590480,150.0746
SpainESPSouthern Europe1,192,291925,698266,593.4527
MoroccoMARNorthern Africa1,159,7651,159,072692.518,394
CanadaCANNorthern America1,004,998820,088184,910.014,316
NigeriaNGAWestern Africa922,652668,754253,898.0—

02In 2012

At either end

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

Highest

  1. China53,325,108
  2. India9,081,120
  3. Indonesia8,923,268
  4. Vietnam5,608,480
  5. United States5,488,978

Lowest

  1. San Marinoshared0
  2. Liechtensteinshared0
  3. Andorrashared0
  4. Monacoshared1
  5. Gibraltarshared1

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 37,349. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

  • Capture fisheries (tonnes, live weight)

    HighestChina15,188,657

    Lowest4 share it

    Middle country: 34,053

  • Aquaculture (tonnes, live weight)

    HighestChina38,136,451.0

    Lowest33 share it

    Middle country: 913.5

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

    HighestChina14,201,444

    Lowest10 share it

    Middle country: 1,182

032011 → 2012

Since 2011

  • +2 / −0countries joined / left
  • 205values changed, of 218 in both
  • 115 · 90rose · fell
  • 13unchanged

Rose most

  • China51,603,000 → 53,325,108+1,722,108
  • India7,984,214 → 9,081,120+1,096,906
  • Indonesia8,471,472 → 8,923,268+451,796
  • Vietnam5,245,090 → 5,608,480+363,390
  • Iceland1,154,486 → 1,456,103+301,618

Fell most

  • Peru8,341,357 → 4,921,358−3,420,000
  • Chile4,018,305 → 3,642,922−375,383
  • Denmark751,305 → 536,780−214,525
  • Belize282,596 → 177,819−104,777
  • South Korea2,249,459 → 2,150,497−98,962
+ Sudan+ South Sudan

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 2012.

  • 217 distinct values among 220

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

  • 160 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) (2012). Fisheries and Aquaculture Production, 2012 [data set], describing 2012. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/fish-production/2012

0675 held

Other years