Home /

Ants

/ Birth & Death Rate of Ants: How Many Ants Are Born & Die

Birth & Death Rate of Ants: How Many Ants Are Born & Die

Some people say that ants are pests and should be exterminated. Others find them fascinating and study how they live in ant colonies.

One thing is sure – they live and die just like any other animal.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at how many ants are born every day, and how many die.

Let’s get started.

Summary

Birth & Death Rate of Ants

DailyMonthlyYearly
Birth 2.876.712.300.000 83.420.833.000.000.000 1.001.050.000.000.000.000
Death 2.739.726.000.000.000 32.876.712.000.000.000 1 quintillion

Ant death rate

The death rate of ants first of all depends on their conditions. Where they are living, how much food do they have access to, predators, and other variables.

Queen ants, as an example, can live for decades, while worker ants of some species only live for 6 months.

When that’s said, we might be able to calculate how fast ants die. For that, we have to make some assumptions. For this calculation, we’ll assume:

  • The average lifespan of an ant is 1 year
  • There are 1 quintillion ants on earth (1.000.000.000.000.000.000, or 1 billion billion)

If all ants die within a year, 1 quintillion ants die every year.

We have to state that some people believe that there are closer to between 1-10 quadrillion ants on earth, and not 1 quintillion. If this is true, then you simply have to take off three zeros from every number on this page.

We can then break this up further.

How Many Ants Die a Day?

If 1 quintillion ants die every year, we can easily calculate how many ants die every day (assuming each ant lives a year on average). It looks like this:

1.000.000.000.000.000.000 / 365 = 2.739.726.000.000.000 ants  die per day.

In other words, that’s 2 quadrillions, 739 trillion, 726 billion ants every day. It may sound absurd, but with a very short life span, a lot of ants will die every day.

We can compare this to humans, where 164.000 die every day – and we live for more than 72 years on average.

That’s 16705646341.5 more ants dying every day compared to humans.

How Many Ants Die in a Month?

If 2,739 quadrillion ants die every day, we can also calculate how many ants die every month.

2.739.726.000.000.000 x 12 = 32.876.712.000.000.000 ants die every month.

That is 32 quadrillion, 876 trillion, 712 billion ants.

This is, again, an absurd number that’s difficult to comprehend. No, give you some perspective, if this was in seconds it would translate into 1.014.040.448 years.

About 1.968.000 people die every month. 

How Many Ant Die a Year?

As we’ve already calculated, around 1 quintillion ants die every year if they have a life span of 1 year. 

We have to say that this is speculation, as the calculation is based on assumptions. First of all, we assumed that 1 quintillion ants live on the planet. Second, we assumed that ants live for a year on average.

Some people claim that 1 quadrillion ants exist. That number is a lot lower. On the other hand, ants could very well live shorter lives than what we’re assuming, which would make the death rate even higher.

The birth rate of ants

fire ants colony and eggs

There are about 12.000 species of ants in the world – that we know of. Only a small portion of these has been studied thoroughly. Hence, we don’t really know all that much about ants.

Now, the ant population has been growing for the last thousands of years. If it hadn’t, they’d be extinct now (or at least less apparent in our daily lives).

For a species population to be growing, their birth rate has to be larger than their death rate.

Based on our previous numbers, we can make some assumptions. If we assume that the ant population grows at a tenth of the speed of humans, their population grows 0.105% (the human population on earth grows 1.05% every year [1]).

Now, a single queen ant can lay between 1.000 to 300.000 eggs every few days. Keep that in mind as we go through these numbers.

How Many Ants Are Born Every Year?

As said, for a population to grow, there need to be born more individuals than the number of individuals that die. Since 1 quintillion ants die every year, at least 1 quintillion ants have to be born every year.

If the ant population grows 1.050.000.000.000.000 per year, that would mean about 1.001.050.000.000.000.000 ants are born every year.

That’s a growth of approximately 1 quadrillion and 50 trillion ants every year.

How Many Ants Are Born Every Month?

If 1.001.050.000.000.000.000 ants are born every year, we can simply divide this number by 12 to find the monthly number of ants born.

1.001.050.000.000.000.000 / 12 = 83.420.833.000.000.000 ants born every month.

How Many Ants Are Born Every Day?

Again, if we know the early number of ants being born, we can easily calculate how many ants are born every day.

1.050.000.000.000.000 / 365 = 2.876.712.300.000 ants born every day.

If every ant queen on the planet can give birth to 10.000 ants every day, that would mean there are about 288 million ant queens on earth.

How Many Ants Are There in the World?

different species of ants on earth

The number of ants in the world is estimated to be between ten quadrillions and more than one quintillion. That’s a lot of ants! 

Of course, how many ants there really are in the world isn’t known. The numbers change depending on who you ask, and these are of course all assumptions. We can’t possibly know how many ants there are in the world, but we’re allowed to imagine.

One thing is certain. There are a lot more ants than people.

How Many Ants Are There Compared to Humans?

If there are 1 quintillion ants on earth, compared to 8 billion humans, ants outnumber us 1:125.000.000, meaning, there are 125 million ants per human on this earth.

Do Ants Kill Each Other?

Ants are well known for how they work together as a colony. They can build large nests very quickly and many of them will all work on the same task to take down huge trees in their path. 

It might seem like ants just look out for each other, but that isn’t always the case. Ants do actually kill each other. They will sometimes fight for territory and to protect the queen. These fights do have a lot of casualties as there are a lot of ants involved in these wars.

Ants also do also eat each other. Ants feed on dead carcasses (including ants, termites, cockroaches, and other insects) or fruit that has fallen from trees. Ants will also eat other insects that they find, but most ants prefer sugary foods.

dead ant

How Many Ants Are There in a Colony?

The number of ants in a colony varies depending on the species and the given colony. 

Colonies usually have between 100,000 and 300,000 worker ants per queen ant. There can be multiple queens depending on the size of the empire. The larger colonies also tend to have more males. 

The number of males also varies depending on how many queens there are, how big the colony is, and how many females reproduce without mating with a male first.

Ants may be small but they come in large numbers that can seem overwhelming to an intruder or even other insects who might consider them prey.

Read more: How many ants are in a colony?

big colony of ants
About Teodoro Pittman

Teodoro is a nature and animal lover. He specifically focuses on insects, such as ants, bees, and the like. In his free time, he takes care of his own ant farm, where he analyzes their behavior. Teodoro has spent the last 7 years studying the intricate behavior of these small creatures.

Looking for something?

Try searching our website!