| **Earnings Per Share Attributable to Common Shareholders (Tables)** | 3 Months Ended                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
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| **Earnings Per Share [Abstract]**                                   |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Schedule of Basic and Diluted Earning Per Share                     | The following table provides the detailed calculation of Earnings per common share:  Three Months Ended(IN MILLIONS) March 31, 2013 April 1, 2012EPS Numerator––Basic    Income from continuing operations $2,761 $1,724Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests(a) 23 9Income from continuing operations attributable to Pfizer Inc. 2,738 1,715Less: Preferred stock dividends––net of tax — —Income from continuing operations attributable to Pfizer Inc common shareholders 2,738 1,715Discontinued operations––net of tax 4 79Net income attributable to Pfizer Inc. common shareholders $2,742 $1,794EPS Numerator––Diluted    Income from continuing operations attributable to Pfizer Inc. common shareholders and assumed conversions $2,738 $1,715Discontinued operations––net of tax 4 79Net income attributable to Pfizer Inc. common shareholders and assumed conversions $2,742 $1,794EPS Denominator    Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding––Basic 7,187 7,537Common-share equivalents: stock options, stock issuable under employee compensation plans and convertible preferred stock 82 61Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding––Diluted 7,269 7,598Stock options that had exercise prices greater than the average market price of our common stock issuable under employee compensation plans(b) 97 223(a) Our 80.2%-owned Animal Health subsidiary, Zoetis, has issued securities, under its share-based compensations programs, that enable the holders to obtain Zoetis common stock under certain circumstances and, as such, those shares are included in computing Zoetis' earnings per share information on a standalone basis. The per-share earnings of Zoetis are included in our consolidated earnings per share calculations based on our proportionate share in Zoetis' common stock and common stock equivalents.(b) These common stock equivalents were outstanding for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and April 1, 2012, but were not included in the computation of diluted EPS for those periods because their inclusion would have had an anti-dilutive effect. |

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| - Definition
Tabular disclosure of an entity's basic and diluted earnings per share calculations.
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No definition available.
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