Cosmetic Animal Testing Around The World

• 41 countries (21% of the world’s nations) have banned animal testing on cosmetics – including all 27 EU countries
• China is the only country in the world that mandates testing on certain cosmetics
• The USA and Brazil have partial bans in place

What’s on this page?

What Countries Require Animal Testing on Cosmetics?

There are very few countries that require animal testing on cosmetics. China is the largest market to have a any kind of requirement on cosmetic animal testing.

But even China’s laws on animal testing have changed in recent times and since 2021 ‘ordinary’ cosmetics can be legally sold in the country without risk of animal testing.

A bill was passed in Russia designed to phase out all animal testing on cosmetics and their ingredients by 2020. This doesn’t appear to have been completed as of yet.

What Countries Have Banned Animal Testing on Cosmetics?

There are 41 countries that have banned animal testing on cosmetics in its totality. These countries are:

• All countries in the EU – 27 countries

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

• Australia
• Colombia
• Guatemala
• Iceland
• India
• Israel
• Mexico
• New Zealand
• Norway
• South Korea
• Switzerland
• Taiwan
• Turkey
• UK

And Brazil – 8 out of 26 states (Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuca, Amazonas, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso du Sol, Pará and Paraná) – and USA – 8 out of 50 (California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia) – have partial bans on animal testing for cosmetics.

Which Countries Have Not Banned Animal Testing?

There are multiple countries that haven’t completely banned animal testing on cosmetics.

As only 41 countries have banned animal testing on cosmetics completely, that leaves 154 countries that haven’t completely banned animal testing on cosmetics. Including behemoths like:

• China
• Japan
• Russia
• Brazil (in its full form)
• USA (in its full form)

Why do some countries require animal testing?

Government regulations in certain countries haven’t moved with the times and taken into account the efficacy, cost reduction and overall safety of animal testing alternatives.

These governments – mainly China – still define animal testing as the safest way of determining whether cosmetics and their ingredients are safe for human consumption. Which, as of 2022, is simply untrue. There are multiple alternatives that are in fact more effective at predicting ingredient and product safety.

• Computer modelling is not just more humane than animal testing, but cheaper, faster and more accurate

And this is just one type of alternative that is more effective. There are multiple others that are – at a minimum – equally as effective as animal testing.

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