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Numbers in the News: Corn
The U.S. produces more corn than any other country. Check out some facts and figures about this crop, which is native to North America.
DANIEL SAMBRAUS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Teosinte, an early ancestor of corn
9,000 YEARS AGO
When people in southern Mexico first began farming corn.
48 FEET
The height of the tallest recorded cornstalk, grown in Allegany, New York, in 2021. A typical corn plant is 5 to 12 feet tall.
ISTOCKPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
15.3 BILLION BUSHELS
The estimated amount of corn produced in the U.S. in 2023.
800
The number of kernels on the average ear of corn.
TANNEN MAURY/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
65.8 ACRES
The size of the world’s largest corn maze, created in Canada in October 2022. It covered an area about the size of 50 football fields!
THINK ABOUT IT: Native Americans grew corn, squash, and beans, known as the Three Sisters, together. Research to find out why.
SOURCES: GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS, PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (2020), U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, IOWA CORN