First, a confession: I have never, not even for a brief, mindless time, inflicted a goatee upon my face. Don't get me wrong, I think goatees look okay. But they were too much of a fad a while back, so I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Goats, however, are another matter. No, I'm not saying I'd wear one on my face. Don't be silly. I'm saying that I've always admired goats, with their I-know-who-I-am faces and their don't-mess-with-me-buster-or-you'll-get-the-butt-kicking-of-your-life attitudes. If there's such a thing as reincarnation and my karma merits a demotion when my time here is through, I wouldn't mind at all returning to this earth as an ornery billy goat.

When I was pondering my pro-goat stance the other day, I got to wondering if there are any countries that actually have more goats than people. After some digging, I finally found what I was looking for in an old and fascinating reference book, The Book of Lists. Table 1.1 lists five countries that have a goat population that's larger than their human population.

Table 1.1 Five countries that have more goats than people.
Country Total Number of GoatsTotal Number of People
Somalia20,500,0002,300,000
Mongolia5,126,0002,300,000
Mauritania3,310,0002,100,000
Namibia1,500,0001,400,000
Djibouti504,000400,000