2026-07-05 · known bee species
Managed honey bee colonies are not most wild bees
Agriculture relies on a few managed species — wild pollinators do the rest.
Agriculture leans on a few managed pollinators — wild species do the rest. Yet when people picture 'a bee,' they usually picture the honey bee. Of the world's 20,000 known bee species, 95% are wild; the managed honey bee takes a 5% spotlight in this grid. The insect we name most is a sliver of global bee diversity.
1 cell = 20 known bee species (0.1% of global bee species) · 1,000 cells
Context
Species counts come from the IPBES pollinator assessment, rounded for display, with 2026 as this edition's data year. The full frame stands for about 20,000 known bee species worldwide.
The 5% band is a spotlight rather than a headcount: it marks the managed honey bee, the pollinator most people can name. The other 95% of the frame belongs to wild bee species — from bumblebees to the tiny solitary bees most of us never notice.
That gap is the point of the title: managed honey bee colonies dominate pollination conversations, but they are not most wild bees. Agriculture leans on a few managed species, and wild pollinators do the rest — which is why the 95% deserves the bigger share of attention.
IPBES pollinator assessment species counts, rounded.
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Credit this grid as Inagrid — https://inagrid.com/e/2026-07-05-bee-decline