The United States has the largest broiler chicken industry in the world with about 17 percent of production exported to other countries in 2018 (National Chicken Council, 2019). Americans consume more chicken than anyone else in the world – more than 93.5 pounds per capita in 2018 – the number one protein consumed in the United States (ibid.). The most recent Census of Agriculture reported 233,770 poultry farms in the United States in 2012 (USDA, 2015).

The number of broiler-type chicks that hatched totalled 9.71 billion in 2018, 9.62 billion in 2017 (USDA, 2019). This would resolve the question for the 2016-2018 period as 9.51 billion.

How many billions of broiler-type chicks will hatch per year, on average, over the 2028-2030 period?

This question resolves as the average number of broiler-type chicks hatched in 2028, 2029, and 2030 (in billions) according to data reported by the US Department of Agriculture. Yearly numbers are to be rounded to one decimal place before averaging. The question resolves ambiguous if the USDA no longer publishes this data, or if its methodology is substantially changed.