How Many Lions Are Left in the World?

By Staff WriterLast Updated December 10, 2023

As of 2014, surveys estimate that fewer than 30,000 wild lions survive in Africa. That number is down from an estimated 200,000 lions a century ago.

Lions no longer inhabit 80 percent of their historical habitat, surviving in only 28 African countries and India. In 26 other African countries where lions once lived, they have gone extinct. Farmers often kill lions because they believe lions are a threat to their livestock. Farmland also fragments and destroys lions’ habitat, confining them to small pockets of land. People also overhunt the lions’ prey, which can cause a shortage of those animals for lions to hunt.