While some African elephant populations are growing primarily in southern Africa, other areas are seeing decreasing populations. A lot of work has been done trying to determine the elephant population in the world, but it’s incredibly difficult to get accurate numbers. Experts can only guess at the total number of African elephants remaining.
One commonly accepted estimate is that there are about 415,000 African elephants remaining (the IUCN’s 2016 status report), and roughly 40,000 to 50,000 Asian elephants left living in the wild.
The IUCN Red List assessed the two African species separately in March 2021. It found that African forest elephants fell by more than 86% over 31 years and African savanna elephants by at least 60% over 50 years. Poaching peaked around 2011 and still threatens both.
The savanna (bush) elephant is now listed as Endangered and the forest elephant as Critically Endangered, and the Asian elephant is Endangered too. Charities such as WWF and many others run various conservation efforts to help stop the killing of these threatened species. The picture is more mixed than those labels suggest, as we explain further down.
The Elephant population as of 2026
As mentioned, a commonly accepted estimate says that there are about 450,000 to 500,000 elephants left in the world. However, some experts postulate that this number could be way off when it comes to how many elephants are left in the wild, saying that it’s more likely about 350,000 elephants.
Note: National population estimates are drawn from the most recent available surveys, which vary by country (2020–2025). Elephant census data is updated irregularly due to the logistical complexity of surveying wild populations.
Why do the numbers differ so much on how many elephants are there in the world? The primary reason is that the number of elephants in the world is constantly changing due to ivory poaching and habitat loss.
African elephants left in the world
There are an estimated 415,000 African elephants left in the world. The countries with the highest populations are Botswana, with around 130,000 elephants (131,909 in its 2022 survey), and Zimbabwe, where estimates range from about 65,000 to 100,000 depending on the source.
Several African countries have fewer than 1,000 elephants, including Eritrea and Equatorial Guinea. It’s estimated that the savanna elephant make up about 20 percent of the entire elephant population in Africa.
Table Overview of Elephant Population remaining in Africa by Country
If you’re wondering how many African elephants are left in the world; Below you’ll find an overview of the Elephant populations per country in Africa. The table is sorted from largest to smallest.
We’ve also added a note on what year the estimation was made (to the best of our sources knowledge).
| Country | Estimated Number of Elephants | Year of Estimation |
|---|---|---|
| Botswana | 131,909 | 2022 |
| Gabon | 95,000 | 2021 |
| Zimbabwe | 65,028 | 2022 |
| Tanzania | 60,000 | 2024 |
| Kenya | 36,280 | 2021 |
| South Africa | 31,324 | 2020 |
| Zambia | 21,758 | 2022 |
| Namibia | 21,090 | 2022 |
| Mozambique | 10,884 | 2022 |
| Uganda | 7,975 | 2022 |
| DR Congo | 7,000 | 2021 |
| Cameroon | 6,500 | 2021 |
| Angola | 5,983 | 2022 |
| Ethiopia | 1,017 | 2022 |
| Chad | 794 | 2022 |
| Nigeria | 400 | 2024 |
| Mali | 250 | 2016 |
| Malawi | 120 | 2020 |
Asian elephants left in the world
There are between 36,000 and 52,000 wild Asian elephants left in the world, with about 1/3 of those — 17,000 to 26,000 — living in India.
India’s 2025 DNA-based survey counted 22,446 elephants, against about 29,964 estimated in 2017. The two surveys used different methods, so part of that fall may reflect the method rather than a real decline.
Other countries with the largest Asian elephant populations include Thailand (12,000–15,000), Indonesia (8,000), and Malaysia (4,500).
The Asian elephant is listed as endangered with extinction by the IUCN.
Table Overview of Elephant Population remaining in Asia by Country
If you’re wondering how many Asian elephants are left in the world; Below you’ll find an overview of the Elephant populations per country in Asia.
We’ve also added the states and union territories split for India, as populations vary.
The table is sorted from largest to smallest. We’ve also added a note on what year the estimation was made (to the best of our sources knowledge).
| Country | Estimated Number of Elephants | Year of Estimation |
|---|---|---|
| India | 22,446 | 2025 |
| – Karnataka State | 6,013 | 2025 |
| – Assam | 4,159 | 2025 |
| – Tamil Nadu | 3,136 | 2025 |
| – Kerala | 3,054 | 2025 |
| – Odisha | 1,976 | 2016 |
| – Uttarakhand | 1,839 | 2016 |
| – Arunachal Pradesh | 1,614 | 2016 |
| – West Bengal, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, Uttar pradesh and Tripura | 100 to 700 | 2025 |
| Sri lanka | 7,500 | 2021 |
| Myanmar | 2,000 | 2017 |
| Indonesia | 1,700 | 2020 |
| Thailand | 3,783 | 2017 |
| Malaysia | 1,500 | 2022 |
| Laos | 400 | 2022 |
| China | 300 | 2024 |
| Vietnam | 80 | 2020 |
Male elephants left in the world
The male elephant population is much smaller than the female population. In fact, it’s estimated that there are only about 20,000 African bull elephants left in the wild.
African bulls have been killed for their ivory throughout history, but current poaching rates have increased significantly from 2007 to 2013.
Asian bull elephants make up a larger portion of the male population. There are between 40,000 and 45,000 Indian elephants, which make up 60 percent of the Asian elephant population.
Are elephants really endangered? Why the answer depends on where you look
Readers sometimes ask how a species with hundreds of thousands of animals can be endangered, especially when some governments are culling elephants. It is a fair question, and both things are true.
- The global verdict: in March 2021 the IUCN assessed the two African species separately for the first time. The savanna elephant is Endangered (down by at least 60% over 50 years) and the forest elephant Critically Endangered (down by more than 86% over 31 years). The IUCN’s most recent reliable continental estimate is around 415,000 elephants, from 2016.
- The local picture: the IUCN notes that savanna elephant numbers have been stable or growing for decades in the Kavango-Zambezi region, which holds the largest subpopulation, and that some forest elephants have stabilised in well-managed areas of Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.
- Where it goes wrong: in Cameroon’s Dja Biosphere Reserve, conservationists working there suggest numbers have fallen by about 70% since 1995, to as few as 220 animals.
- Culling: in September 2024 Zimbabwe said it would cull 200 elephants, its first cull since 1987, and Namibia planned to kill 83, to provide food during a drought (as reported at the time). Officials argued that numbers exceed what the land can support, and conservation groups opposed the plans.
The Red List does not ask whether one country has too many elephants. It measures the decline across a species’ whole range over several generations. Healthy populations in parts of southern Africa and steep losses elsewhere can both be real, which is why the global status and the local headlines look so different. Asian elephants are Endangered too. For the causes, see why elephants are endangered.
Are Elephants Going Extinct?
Both African and Asian elephants are officially classified as threatened species by the IUCN Red List. Since 2021 the African savanna (bush) elephant has been listed as Endangered and the African forest elephant as Critically Endangered, and the Asian elephant is Endangered too. These designations reflect long-term declines measured across each species’ whole range. They do not mean that every population is shrinking, as the section above explains.
A century ago there were several million elephants across Africa and Asia, although nobody ran a real census. Today the combined population sits at roughly 450,000 to 550,000. The primary drivers of that decline remain poaching for ivory and the steady erosion of habitat as human populations expand into elephant ranges.
The 1989 CITES ivory trade ban was a turning point that slowed the decline significantly, but enforcement remains inconsistent across much of the range. Demand from Asia continues to fuel illegal markets — despite China’s domestic ivory ban in 2017, black-market trade persists and prices for raw ivory remain high.
There is, however, genuine reason for hope. Conservation corridors and anti-poaching units have shown measurable results in several countries. Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Kenya have each recorded population stabilisation or modest growth in recent years, demonstrating that targeted, well-funded conservation can reverse the trend. The fight to protect elephants is far from over — but it is far from lost.
Table Overview of Elephants Remaining in the World, by Country and Region
The below table is simply a combined version of the African and Asian overview tables above.
| Country | Estimated Number of Elephants | Year of Estimation |
|---|---|---|
| Botswana | 131,909 | 2022 |
| Gabon | 95,000 | 2021 |
| Zimbabwe | 65,028 | 2022 |
| Tanzania | 60,000 | 2024 |
| Kenya | 36,280 | 2021 |
| South Africa | 31,324 | 2020 |
| India | 22,446 | 2025 |
| Zambia | 21,758 | 2022 |
| Namibia | 21,090 | 2022 |
| Mozambique | 10,884 | 2022 |
| Uganda | 7,975 | 2022 |
| Sri lanka | 7,500 | 2021 |
| DR Congo | 7,000 | 2021 |
| Cameroon | 6,500 | 2021 |
| Angola | 5,983 | 2022 |
| Thailand | 3,783 | 2017 |
| Myanmar | 2,000 | 2017 |
| Indonesia | 1,700 | 2020 |
| Malaysia | 1,500 | 2022 |
| Ethiopia | 1,017 | 2022 |
| Chad | 794 | 2022 |
| Laos | 400 | 2022 |
| Nigeria | 400 | 2024 |
| China | 300 | 2024 |
| Mali | 250 | 2016 |
| Malawi | 120 | 2020 |
| Vietnam | 80 | 2020 |
Great Elephant Census (GEC)
In 2016, the now late Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft set out to sponsor a project to prove that Africa’s Elephant population was decreasing.
The team did this in what was called the Great Elephant Census: Counting Africa’s Elephants.
See results from the Great Elephant Census. We’ve lifted out data from that study into the table above. Those populations are marked with “Year of Estimation: 2016” in the above table.
Biggest reasons the elephant population is decreasing
There are a lot of different reasons by the elephant population is decreasing. The primary reasons are poaching for the illegal trade of ivory, growing human populations in rural areas and therefore the loss of habitat for the elephants. But there are also other dangers to the elephant.
Elephant poaching
African elephants are being poached at an alarming rate for their tusks. The number of elephants killed in 2014 was the highest it’s been in 25 years, with about 33,000 Africans elephants being illegally slaughtered by poachers for ivory.
Thailand has become a hub for illegal trade in wildlife products, especially ivory.
One of the most significant milestones in the battle against illegal elephant poaching was the consumer boycott of ivory. This led directly to China’s decision to ban domestic sales of ivory by the end of 2017, which is key to reducing demand for African tusks.
Elephants are also poached for medicinal purposes or simply for their meat.
Human wildlife conflict
As populations grow, humans are encroaching on some elephant habitats. This often leads to conflict between the two species as elephants destroy crops or harm people.
Elephants are also killed because they accidentally damage infrastructure such as roads and railways. India has an estimated 100,000 incidents of human-elephant conflict per year, which results in about 400 deaths.
Illegal trade of ivory tusks
Ivory is illegally traded all around the world, but some of the worst offenders are countries in Africa. Ivory often travels through multiple middlemen before reaching its final destination.
Tradition in some areas is one of the main reasons why they kill elephants, even when it isn’t needed for food or medicine.
It’s estimated that the illegal trade of ivory tusks is worth about $10 billion per year. The price currently paid for raw ivory in Asia, according to an investigation by the Wildlife Justice Commission, is currently between $597/kg and $689/kg, in U.S. dollars.
In some cases elephants are even killed by poachers, who saw off their tusks while the animals are alive and then leave them to bleed to death.
Tusks that aren’t carved for sale or kept as trophies by hunters end up in two main markets – China and Thailand – where elephant tusks are used for ornamental carvings, chopsticks, hairpins and other trinkets.
Habitat loss
The elephant has been rapidly decreasing as a result of humans cutting down forests for development or farming purposes, generally leading to fragmentation of the once large home range that elephants need to live.
In addition to deforestation, man-made barriers have been blocking important migration routes and access to water sources for elephants.
Habitat fragmentation leads to issues with disease outbreaks, as elephants are forced to cross dangerous areas they wouldn’t normally cross in order to reach food and water. This also causes issues with their genetics, as small populations of the species don’t mix very often or at all.
FAQ on the Elephant populations
As of 2026, there are an estimated 415,000–500,000 African elephants and approximately 40,000–50,000 Asian elephants remaining in the wild. These numbers are derived from national surveys conducted between 2020 and 2025, and continue to be updated as new census data becomes available.
Roughly 40,000 to 50,000, with about half in India. India’s 2025 DNA-based survey counted 22,446, down from about 29,964 in 2017, although the two surveys used different methods.
It depends on the year. Poaching peaked around 2011, when roughly 100,000 African elephants were killed between 2010 and 2012, about 90 a day. Rates have fallen from that peak but poaching continues.
Botswana, with about 130,000 elephants (131,909 in its 2022 survey). Zimbabwe is usually next, with estimates from about 65,000 to 100,000 depending on the source, and Gabon holds about 95,000, mostly forest elephants.
Nobody can put a date on it. African forest elephants are Critically Endangered and savanna elephants Endangered (IUCN, 2021), but savanna populations in places such as the Kavango-Zambezi region have been stable or growing for decades, so the outlook depends heavily on where you look.
About half of all elephants that were killed in Africa between 2010 and 2012 were killed by poachers.
Nobody counted, but estimates run to several million elephants across Africa and Asia a century ago, against roughly 450,000 to 550,000 today.
A 2014 study in PNAS by Wittemyer and colleagues estimated that about 100,000 African elephants were killed for their ivory between 2010 and 2012, roughly 33,000 a year.
Bottom Line
There are approximately 415,000–500,000 African elephants and 40,000–50,000 Asian elephants left in the world — a fraction of the several million that roamed Africa and Asia a century ago.
The primary threats — ivory poaching, habitat loss, and human-elephant conflict — continue to put pressure on elephant populations globally. African forest elephants are now Critically Endangered, while Asian elephants remain listed as Endangered.
The good news: conservation efforts are working in some regions. Botswana, Kenya, and parts of southern Africa have seen stabilisation or growth. The fight to save elephants is far from over, but it is far from lost.
2 replies on “How Many Elephants Are Left in the World?”
Eine Großwild-Spezies mit vielen 100.000 Exemplaren kann kaum als gefährdet betrachtet werden. Und tatsächlich werden inzwischen Elefanten im südlichen Afrika zum Abschuss freigegeben, weil sie sich in den letzten Jahren stark vermehrt haben. Natürlich ist mit Untergangsszenarien mehr Spendengeld einzusammeln, trotzdem sollte man bei den Fakten bleiben.
Hi Martin, thank you for the push to stick to the facts. You were right that parts of the article were overstated. We removed an outdated claim about a 62% drop and a forecast that never materialised, stopped attributing the Critically Endangered label to WWF, replaced the extinction-timeline warnings, and corrected the Asian elephant numbers (roughly 40,000 to 50,000). Every IUCN figure is now sourced (savanna elephants down by at least 60% over 50 years, forest elephants by more than 86% over 31 years). We also added a section explaining why the global status and local reality differ: savanna populations in the Kavango-Zambezi region have been stable or growing, and Zimbabwe and Namibia moved to cull elephants in 2024. https://elephantguide.com/how-many-elephants-are-left-in-the-world/