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The 10 Countries That Grow the Most Pumpkins, Squash and Gourds |
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Halloween is tomorrow. America carves the pumpkins. India grows them. On the FAO’s latest count, India harvested 9.33 million tonnes of pumpkins, squash and gourds in 2024. The United States, sixth, grew a tenth of that. |
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Source: FAO, FAOSTAT Crops and Livestock Products, updated 31 Dec 2025. Pumpkins, squash and gourds, production in tonnes, 2024. |
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India took the top spot in 2022, passing China. Its harvest has nearly tripled in a decade, from 3.21 million tonnes in 2014. In 2024 alone it grew 17%. That one-year gain, 1.36 million tonnes, is bigger than the entire crop of Egypt at #3. The FAO counts pumpkins, squash and gourds as one crop, bottle gourd included. Asia grows 62% of it. Most of it goes into the pot, not onto the porch. The United States, home of the jack-o’-lantern, grows 2.7% of the world’s crop. Mexico is where it started. Squash seeds from Guilá Naquitz cave in Oaxaca show people farmed pumpkins 10,000 years ago. Today Mexico ranks 11th. Its harvest fell 31% from 2019 to 2024. |
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Big countries grow big crops. India and China together grow 49% of the world’s 34.6 million tonnes. Each has more than 1.4 billion people to feed. Russia and Ukraine sit at #4 and #5, about 1.1 million tonnes each. Ukraine kept planting through the war: 1.11 million tonnes in 2024, against 1.31 million in 2021. Europe gets the most out of each field. Spain harvests 43 tonnes a hectare. India harvests 17. Europe averages 25 tonnes a hectare, three times Africa’s 8. Africa plants 529,000 hectares, Europe 202,000. Europe harvests more. |
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9.33 million Tonnes of pumpkins, squash and gourds India grew in 2024. That is 27% of the world’s crop. |
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10× India’s harvest against America’s. The US grew 934,922 tonnes and ranks sixth. |
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+77% Growth in world output over 20 years, from 19.5 million tonnes in 2004 to 34.6 million in 2024. |
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36% Illinois’s share of America’s 2025 pumpkin crop on USDA’s pumpkin-only count: 533 million of 1.47 billion pounds. Most goes to processing. |
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10,000 years Age of the oldest farmed squash seeds, found in a cave in Oaxaca, Mexico. Mexico now ranks 11th. |
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The FAO publishes 2025 crop data in December. India’s 2024 jump came mostly from land: 14% more hectares, yields up 3%. If that land keeps growing, China falls further behind. USDA’s 2025 count already has US pumpkins up 4%. Mexico’s slide is the other thread. We’ll be watching. |
