Despite the continuing threat to rhinos due to poaching for their valuable horns, population figures have been increasing in recent years.

At the beginning of the 20th century there were 500,000 rhinos across Africa and Asia. In 1970 there were 70,000. Today, there are fewer than 29,000 rhinos surviving in the wild.

Between 1970 and 1992, large-scale poaching caused a dramatic 96% collapse in numbers of the critically endangered black rhino. Shockingly, 95% of the rhino population has consequently been wiped out.

After the poaching wars during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and up until the end of 2007, white rhino numbers had been increasing by around 9.5% a year, and by around 6% per year for black rhinos, thanks to persistent conservation efforts.

Read on for information about African and Asian rhino population numbers. You can click the links to get more detailed tables of information about the population of the different subspecies of rhino in each country. The figures are based on numbers published most recently by IUCN.

African rhino population figures

White rhino
20, 405
Black rhino
5,055

Credit Berry White

Click here for a breakdown of African rhino population figures by subspecies and by country

Asian rhino population figures

Greater one-horned rhino

3333

Sumatran rhino
Fewer than 100
Javan rhino
35-45