Where is the Largest Tiger Population in the World

The largest tiger population in the world is in India. The All India Tiger Estimation 2022, released in 2023, counted about 3,682 wild Bengal tigers, well over half of all the wild tigers on Earth. No other country comes close: Russia, in second place, has at least 750 Siberian tigers, cubs included, and Nepal about 429. Below, the numbers country by country, why tigers fell so far and what is helping them recover.

India holds the largest tiger population

India's tigers live in 58 tiger reserves and many other forests, from the foothills of the Himalayas to the dry forests of the peninsula and the mangroves of the Sundarbans. The count has risen in every national estimate since 2006, the result of a protection effort that began with Project Tiger in 1973 and a nationwide ban on tiger hunting in 1970. For the census figures, state by state, see our guide to how many tigers are left in India, and for the habitat, prey and culture behind these numbers, read why India is the land of the tiger.

How many tigers are left in the world

Around 1900, roughly 100,000 tigers lived across Asia. By 2010 only about 3,200 remained in the wild, and three subspecies, the Java tiger, the Bali tiger and the Caspian tiger, had disappeared for good.

The picture has since improved. The IUCN's assessment estimated 3,726 to 5,578 wild tigers in 2021, not counting cubs, and in 2023 the Global Tiger Forum put the total at about 5,574. Most of those are Bengal tigers, and most Bengal tigers live in India, which is why India alone holds the majority of the species.

Tiger numbers country by country

Outside India, the tiger survives in a scattering of countries, each with a far smaller population:

• Russia: at least 750 Siberian tigers in 2023, cubs included, almost all in the Russian Far East.
• Nepal: about 429 tigers in the survey released in 2026, up from 355 in 2022, roughly a 20% rise.
• Bhutan: 131 tigers in the national survey published in 2023, up from 103 in 2015.
• Bangladesh: 125 tigers in its part of the Sundarbans in the 2023 to 2024 survey, up from 114 in 2018.
• China: 72 wild tigers reported in 2026 in the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park.

Southeast Asia holds the rest. Thailand's national estimate rose to 179 to 223 tigers in 2024, and the Sumatran tiger of Indonesia and the Malayan tiger of Malaysia survive in their own forests, both critically endangered. Together they still fall far short of India's total, and the gap explains why India is so often called the last great stronghold of the species.

Siberian tigers in Russia and China

The northern tigers tell one of the clearest recovery stories. In 2005 there were an estimated 331 to 393 Siberian tigers in the Russian Far East and only 18 to 22 in China. Russia's count passed 560 in 2015, and by 2023 it had reached at least 750, cubs included. In Russia the tiger has become a symbol of environmental protection, and China's 2026 figure of 72 wild tigers in its northeastern national park shows the species slowly returning across the border. Learn more about this cold-climate cat in our article on what a Siberian tiger is.

Tigers once lived across the Korean Peninsula as well. South Korea has had no confirmed wild tiger since 1921, and it is uncertain whether any survive in North Korea.

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Why tiger numbers fell so far

Mass hunting and deforestation did the first damage. Hunting was then banned across most of Asia, in some countries from the 1960s: China banned the hunting of Siberian tigers in 1962 and of South China tigers in 1977, and India banned tiger hunting in 1970, which greatly improved the outlook for the Bengal tiger.

Habitat loss kept going. As human populations grow, more land turns into farms, roads and towns, and the tiger's range shrinks into separate islands of forest. Agriculture, urbanization, pollution and forest fires also reduce the deer and wild cattle that tigers eat. When tiger populations are cut off from one another they struggle to find mates, and when people and tigers meet more often, conflicts rise on both sides.

Traditional medicine and poaching

Poaching did the rest. In parts of Asia, and above all in China, tiger bones, eyes, teeth and other parts have long been used in traditional remedies, and skins fetch high prices too. China banned the trade in tiger bone in 1993, yet tigers are still killed illegally to supply that demand.

According to National Geographic, traditional Chinese medicine as a whole is an industry worth more than $60 billion a year, even though the effects of tiger-based remedies have never been shown scientifically. Reducing that demand remains one of the hardest parts of protecting the species.

What helps tiger numbers recover

In 2010, the thirteen countries where wild tigers still live agreed on a shared goal, known as TX2, to double their wild tigers from about 3,200 to more than 6,000 by 2022. The world did not quite reach that number, but countries such as India and Nepal grew their populations steadily, and the methods that worked are now clear:

• Protected reserves with room for tigers and their prey, linked by forest corridors.
• More rangers to patrol tiger areas and stop poachers.
• Compensation for farmers who lose livestock or crops, which reduces revenge killings.
• Better livelihoods for people who live near tiger forests.
• Less demand for tiger parts, in China and elsewhere.

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