2026-08-13 · known bee species

Managed honey bee colonies are not most wild bees

Agriculture relies on a few managed species — wild pollinators do the rest.

Ask someone to picture a bee and they'll picture the honey bee — the managed workhorse standing in for a vast wild majority. Of the world's roughly 20,000 known bee species, about 95% are wild. Agriculture leans on a few managed species; wild pollinators do the rest. This grid sets the 5% managed-honey-bee focus beside the 95% wild majority.

1 cell = 20 known bee species (0.1% of global bee species) · 1,000 cells

Context

Figures are the IPBES pollinator assessment's species counts, rounded, with 2026 as the data year. The whole is the world's roughly 20,000 known bee species, split into 95% wild bee species and a 5% managed honey bee focus.

The stakes are about dependence: agriculture leans on a few managed species — the ones we count, move, and keep — while the wild majority, on the order of 19,000 species, does the rest of the pollination work. Reading 'bees' as 'honey bees' hides most of that diversity.

Units matter here: the grid counts species, while the title contrasts managed honey bee colonies with wild bees. Counts are rounded, so treat the 95/5 split as an order-of-magnitude picture of where bee diversity sits.

IPBES pollinator assessment species counts, rounded.