Which US State Produces The Most Eggs?

Eggs might be the perfect food. According to Healthline, a large egg contains six grams of protein and a number of other nutrients including vitamins A, B5, B12, and selenium. This versatile protein source makes a healthy breakfast that can be served a variety of ways — scrambled, poached, fried, or hardboiled. They can also elevate lunch and dinner meals by adding a fried egg to a sandwich or mixing an egg into stir fry. And, let's not forget that eggs are often a necessary binding agent used in baking recipes like cake and cookies.

Since they have so many uses, it's fair to wonder where the eggs you grab from the supermarket come from. There are certain crops or agricultural products that you might naturally associate with various regions or states throughout America. California's Napa Valley is renowned for producing excellent wine, Texas is revered for its beef, many people know potatoes are plentiful in Idaho, and citrus fruits are grown in warm, sunny climates like Florida. But which state produces the most eggs?

According to the Iowa Egg Council, the number of hens in the state of Iowa is just over 58 million, Ohio comes in second with 36 million, and Texas is the fifth highest producing state with just over 20 million hens. While these numbers are impressive on their own, it's helpful to put things into further perspective by understanding how many eggs a chicken will lay annually. One laying hen can produce 276 eggs per year, as reported by The New York Times.

With those numbers in mind, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Iowa produced almost 15 billion eggs from December 2020 through November 2021, per Watt Poultry. Iowa's number one agricultural item is corn, but eggs are the state's fifth top agricultural product, as reported by Farm Flavor. So, the next time you go to grab an egg out of the carton, remember that there's a good chance the egg you're about to enjoy came from Iowa.