No EU country has half its laying flock free range, Commission figures show

Published on : 6 Oct 2026

Ireland has the highest share of free-range laying hens in the EU at 45.7%, but no member state has yet reached half its flock in free-range systems, according to the latest European Commission figures.

The Commission's 2025 egg market dashboard puts the EU laying flock at 399.8 million hens. Of these, 16.5% are free range, 6.6% organic, 41.4% in barns and 35.5% in enriched cages.

France has the second-highest free-range share at 34.2%, followed by Austria at 32.0%, Bulgaria at 30.2% and Germany at 30.0%. The French figure is from 2024.

Adding organic hens, which the dashboard records separately, still takes no country past half its flock. Ireland comes closest at 49.1%, followed by France at 47.0% and Austria at 45.0%. The table shows the six member states with the highest free-range shares, with the other 21 member states combined in one row.

France and Germany hold most free-range birds
France and Germany together account for about 37.6 million free-range hens, 57% of the EU's estimated 66 million. France has the EU's largest flock at 59.3 million hens, 14.8% of the total, and Germany has 57.8 million, 14.5%.

Germany has 0.7% of its hens in cages, with 55.6% in barns and 13.7% organic. Austria and Luxembourg record no caged hens and Sweden 0.7%, although 81.2% of Swedish hens are in barns and 8.8% free range.

Luxembourg and Denmark have the highest organic shares at 27.6% and 26.3%.

Cages still dominate in the south and east
Malta keeps 99.0% of its hens in enriched cages. Estonia follows at 77.1%, then Greece at 76.5% on 2020 data, Lithuania at 69.6%, Hungary at 67.6% and Portugal at 67.1%.

Poland, the EU's third-largest producer with 53.6 million hens, has 62.2% caged and 7.6% free range. Spain, with 47.2 million, has 59.8% caged and 11.2% free range. The two countries hold about 61.6 million caged hens between them, 43% of the EU's 141.9 million.

Italy's 44.2 million hens are 56.7% barn, 33.2% caged and 5.0% free range. The Netherlands, on 2023 data, has 63.1% in barns and 16.1% free range.

Free range is lowest in Malta at 0.0%, Hungary at 1.2% and Czechia at 1.9%.

Data years
The Commission notes that figures for France, Portugal and Hungary are from 2024, the Netherlands from 2023 and Greece from 2020. All other member states are 2025.

Source
European Commission, DG AGRI – Eggs market situation dashboard, 2025 laying hen numbers by member state and farming method. Source of all flock size and housing system figures.