As of 30 June 2023, the total carabao inventory was estimated at 2.73 million heads. This indicates a decline of -1.2 percent from its previous year’s same period count of 2.77 million heads. About 99.1 percent of the country’s carabao population came from smallhold farms, while the remaining 0.8 percent and 0.1 percent were from semi-commercial and commercial farms, respectively. (Figure 2)

Bicol Region recorded the highest carabao population with 322.85 thousand heads as of 30 June 2023. This was followed by Western Visayas and Central Luzon with corresponding inventories of 256.33 thousand heads and 249.99 thousand heads. These three regions shared 30.3 percent to the country’s total carabao population during the period.