Scientists say 20 quadrillion ants are crawling on Earth

STORY: How many ants are crawling on Earth?

20 quadrillion

according to the most thorough assessment to date of the global population of ants

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

In comparison, the world's human population is forecast to surpass 8 billion

which means there are approximately 2.5 million ants for every human

Researchers based their analysis on 489 studies of ant populations

spanning every continent where ants live

There are more than 12,000 known species of ants

Tropical regions were found to harbor many more ants than other regions

with forests and drylands boasting more ants than urban areas