Frequently asked questions How many animals are used for experiments in the UK? In the UK the latest figures published by the Home Office were for 2008.  They showed: Just under 3.7 million scientific procedures were started in 2008, a rise of 454,000 (14%) on 2007, mainly due to increases in the use of fish (+278,000 or 85%), mice (+197,000 or 9%), amphibians (+15,000, or 81%), pigs (+3,600 or 114%), sheep (+3,100 or 9%) and turkeys (+1,500 or 135%). Use of non-human primates rose by slightly over 600 (+16%), due to an increase of 1,000 (+33%) procedures involving old world primates and a fall of 400 (-53%) procedures using new world primates. Recent trends suggest that the number of animals used in experiments will continue to increase. These statistics only cover vertebrate animals and one species of octopus. How many animals are used in experiments worldwide? Around 200 million vertebrate animals are used for scientific experiments worldwide each year. We can only estimate the number of vertebrate animals that are used in experiments worldwide. This is because not all experiments on vertebrate species are recorded in all countries. For instance, in the US, experiments on mice, rats and other rodents, and on birds are not counted within the statistics even though these are amongst the most commonly used laboratory species. In the UK, surplus animals that are bred for, but not used in experiments, and animals used to produce certain types of biological material are not counted in the statistics.