A global surge in poultry numbers is transforming high streets, diets and landscapes. Few foods travel as smoothly through the modern economy as chicken. A meat that for much of the 20th century was an expensive minority choice has in the 21st become its favourite protein — and the rise of the chicken is speeding up.

Global growth in chicken production has accelerated in the past three to four years, says Nan-Dirk Mulder, global poultry specialist at Rabobank, who says he struggles to find any market where consumption is falling. Chickens produced worldwide rose from 48.3bn in 2006 to 76.2bn in 2023. That rise has reshaped farming landscapes and high streets. More chicken means more sheds, hatcheries, feed mills, slaughter lines and refrigerated lorries, but also wider access to cheap protein for consumers who once ate little meat.

As far as demand is concerned, the chicken's rise has much further to go, observers say. "We're a long way off peak chicken," says Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University. Yet the same industrial farms that cater for the public's vast appetite for chicken are rapidly gaining a reputation as centres of pollution and disease. Avian flu has disrupted production and trade, while planning battles and community opposition make it harder to build the farms and processing plants needed to keep expanding.

From London to Lagos and Riyadh to Manila, fried-chicken shops and poultry-heavy fast-food menus have become part of the everyday food economy.