Made in England ResearchDataset
How much milk and cheese does the UK produce?
How many dairy cows and dairy farms the UK has, what farmers are paid for milk, how much becomes cheese, what the UK imports and exports, and how it compares with Europe and the world.
Every figure is from Defra, HMRC, Eurostat or the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Key figures
- 8,643litres of milk per cow a year in 2025, more than double the 3,975 litres of 1973.
- 4,841dairy farms in England in 2025, down from 8,190 in 2009.
- 16.0bnlitres of milk produced in the UK in 2025, worth £7.0bn to farmers.
Dairy cows and milk yield
UK dairy herd, annual average, 1973 to 2025.
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, table 8.6a.
The UK has around 1.85 million dairy cows, about half as many as in 1973. Each cow now gives 8,643 litres a year on average, up from 3,975, so total milk production has risen from 13.8bn to 16.0bn litres. Farmers were paid an average of 44.0p a litre in 2025.
Milk prices paid to farmers
Average UK farmgate milk price, pence per litre, 1995 to 2025.
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, table 8.6a. Prices as paid at the time, not adjusted for inflation.
UK dairy farmers were paid an average of 44.0p a litre in 2025. From 1998 to 2006 it never reached 20p. It jumped to 44.0p in 2022, the year feed, fertiliser and fuel prices soared, and has stayed above 39p since. In 2015, after milk quotas ended and world prices fell, it dropped to 24.5p.
Number of dairy farms
Dairy farms in England, commercial holdings, 2009 to 2025.
Source: Defra, Structure of the agricultural industry in England at June, results by type of farm. Holdings classed as dairy farms by their main output. No breakdown was published for 2020, when the June survey was cut back during the pandemic.
England had 4,841 dairy farms in 2025, down from 8,190 in 2009: 41% fewer in 16 years. Milk production has held up because the farms that remain are larger and their cows give more milk.
What the milk is used for
Milk used by UK dairies by product, 2025, litres.
- Liquid milk for drinking6.1bn L
- Cheese4.8bn L
- Cream0.4bn L
- Yoghurt0.5bn L
- Butter0.4bn L
- Condensed milk0.3bn L
- Other products2.0bn L
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, table 8.6d. Other products include milk powders and ingredients.
About 42% of milk is sold for drinking. Cheese takes the largest share of the rest: 4.8bn litres, around 33% of all milk used.
Cheese production
UK cheese production, thousand tonnes, 1987 to 2025.
Source: Defra, UK milk utilisation by dairies, annual data, published 5 November 2026. From 2015 Defra changed its method and stopped estimating cheese made on farms, so the series is not fully comparable across 2015.
Download UK cheese production, 1987 to 2025 (CSV)
By type, 2025
- Cheddar375k t
- Other cheese (including mozzarella and soft cheese)103k t
- Other hard territorials (such as Red Leicester, Double Gloucester)31k t
- Crumbly territorials (such as Wensleydale, Caerphilly)10k t
- Blue cheese (such as Stilton)9k t
Source: Defra, UK milk utilisation by dairies. Defra groups cheese by type, not by named cheese; the examples are typical cheeses in each group.
UK dairies made 528k tonnes of cheese in 2025, almost twice as much as in 1987. Cheddar dominates at 375k tonnes, 71% of the total.
Dairy imports and exports
UK cheese trade by weight, thousand tonnes, 1997 to 2025.
ExportsImports
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, table 13.3, from HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics.
The UK imported 472k tonnes of cheese in 2025, worth £2.27bn, and exported 207k tonnes, worth £0.97bn at 2025 prices. Of the main foods and drinks Defra tracks, only whisky earns more from exports. Taking production plus imports minus exports, the UK makes about 67% of the cheese it eats.
Main dairy products, 2025
| Product, 2025 | Exports | Imports | Exports | Imports |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| thousand tonnes | thousand tonnes | £m | £m | |
| Cheese | 207 | 472 | 974 | 2,273 |
| Butter | 50 | 60 | 289 | 348 |
| Milk and cream | 838 | 251 | 484 | 213 |
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, tables 13.2 and 13.3, from HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics. Values at 2025 prices. Milk and cream excludes concentrated and sweetened milk.
The UK exports more milk and cream than it imports, but buys in far more cheese than it sells, and a little more butter. Across all dairy products and eggs, the UK imported £4.58bn and exported £2.51bn in 2025, a trade gap of £2.07bn. Defra counts eggs with dairy in this total.
World cow numbers
Countries with the most dairy cows, 2024.
- India66.8m
- Pakistan17.0m
- China15.1m
- Brazil15.1m
- Ethiopia12.8m
- United States9.3m
- Bangladesh8.8m
- South Sudan8.7m
- Sudan8.1m
- Tanzania7.1m
- United Kingdom1.8m
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAOSTAT, cows milked (item: raw milk of cattle, element: milk animals), 2024. Many figures are FAO estimates.
There were 295 million dairy cows in the world in 2024. India has by far the most. The UK ranks 28th by number of cows but 12th by milk produced, because UK cows give much more milk: about 8.6 tonnes each a year, against a world average of 2.7 tonnes.
Countries producing the most cow's milk, 2024
- India135.0m t
- United States102.5m t
- China40.8m t
- Brazil36.8m t
- Germany33.8m t
- Russia32.8m t
- Pakistan24.8m t
- France24.2m t
- New Zealand21.5m t
- Türkiye21.0m t
- Poland16.0m t
- United Kingdom15.9m t
Source: FAOSTAT, raw milk of cattle, production, 2024. Tonnes of milk.
EU cow numbers
EU countries with the most dairy cows, 2025, with the UK for comparison.
- Germany3.60m
- France2.98m
- Poland1.95m
- United Kingdom1.85m
- Italy1.70m
- Netherlands1.52m
- Ireland1.49m
- Romania1.05m
- Spain0.76m
Source: Eurostat, bovine population, dairy cows, November to December survey, 2025 (apro_mt_lscatl). UK figure from Defra, annual average, so not measured in quite the same way.
The 27 EU countries had 19.0 million dairy cows at the end of 2025. Germany has the most. Were the UK still in the EU, it would rank fourth, behind Germany, France and Poland.
A short history of milk in the UK
- 1933The Milk Marketing Board is set up to buy all milk from farmers in England and Wales and sell it on to dairies.
- 1946The School Milk Act gives every child in school a free third of a pint of milk a day.
- 1971Free school milk ends for most children over seven.
- 1984European milk quotas cap how much milk each farm can produce.
- 1994The Milk Marketing Board is wound up and farmers sell to dairies directly or through co-operatives.
- 2015Milk quotas end on 1 April.
How these figures are made
Where they come from
Herd size, yield, milk production, prices and milk use are from Defra's Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, published 9 July 2026. Cheese production by type is from Defra's monthly survey of milk use by UK dairies, published 5 November 2026. Trade is from HMRC, via Defra. Numbers of dairy farms are from Defra's June survey of agriculture in England. EU cow numbers are from Eurostat. World figures are from the FAO's FAOSTAT database. We have not adjusted any of them except to round. The share of cheese made in the UK is our own calculation: UK production divided by production plus imports minus exports, by weight, for 2025. It ignores changes in stocks.
Definitions
The dairy herd is the average number of cows kept mainly for milk. Yield is litres per cow per year. Cheese production covers cheese made by UK dairies; from 2015 it no longer includes estimates for cheese made on farms. The farmgate price is the average price paid to UK farmers for their milk, before any deductions for haulage. Figures are for the UK as a whole, except the number of dairy farms, which is for England.
Sources: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, chapter 8: livestock (table 8.6); chapter 13: overseas trade (tables 13.2 and 13.3); Defra, milk utilisation by dairies; Defra, structure of the agricultural industry at June; Eurostat, bovine population; FAOSTAT, crops and livestock products.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Eurostat data reused under the Eurostat copyright notice. FAOSTAT data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Related research
How much of its own food does the UK produce? includes milk and cheese. UK food and drink industry in numbers covers exports, and our cheese counter stocks English cheeses from small dairies.
Next update
Defra publishes milk use every month and Agriculture in the United Kingdom each July. We will update this page each year.
Suggested citation
Made in England Research, How much milk and cheese does the UK produce?, data to 2025, from Defra, HMRC and FAOSTAT. https://madeinengland.com/pages/uk-dairy-and-cheese-statistics