Chinese consumed 51 million tonnes of pork in 2006, roughly half of the world's total pig consumption and approximately consumed 1,703,975 pigs on an average day.

This is according to a report by the USDA. The report also states that US consumed around 8.6 million tonnes last year.

The average weight of a pig is 82 kilogrammes, so in 2006, Chinese ate about 621,951,219 pigs. Each of China's 1.3 billion people consumed, on average, under half a pig.  Americans ate 104,878,048 pigs in 2006. With a population of 301,844,000, the average American ate the equivalent of about one-third of a pig during the year.

Pork is such an important part of Chinese diets that a rapid increase in pork prices in spring 2007 lifted May consumer prices 3.4%. Meat, mainly pork, prices rose 26.5% (MacDonald).

Meat consumption has risen dramatically in China over the past two decades. Just since 2003, pork consumption has risen 19%. Pork's centrality to Chinese cooking is reflected in the fact that when people refer to meat, by default they mean pork. On a menu, dishes with pork simply say "meat." If the meat is not pork, then an additional qualifier (cow - meat for beef, for example) is required.