even though absolute numbers of Needs ID have gone up, i don’t think it’s really grown in proportion to the growth in total observations. here’s the breakdown of observation counts by iconic taxon right now:
iNaturalist Observation Counts by Iconic Taxa
| Iconic Taxon | Verifiable | R Grade | % RG of V | Needs ID | % NID of V | All | Diff All-V | % V of All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mammals |  |
1,784,608 | 1,515,350 | 84.9 | 269,258 | 15.1 | 2,224,143 | 439,535 | 80.2 |
| Birds |  |
11,125,920 | 10,482,643 | 94.2 | 643,277 | 5.8 | 12,697,862 | 1,571,942 | 87.6 |
| Reptiles |  |
1,906,715 | 1,737,250 | 91.1 | 169,465 | 8.9 | 2,042,518 | 135,803 | 93.4 |
| Amphibians |  |
1,143,404 | 929,654 | 81.3 | 213,750 | 18.7 | 1,210,065 | 66,661 | 94.5 |
| Ray-Finned Fish |  |
766,896 | 599,008 | 78.1 | 167,888 | 21.9 | 857,475 | 90,579 | 89.4 |
| Mollusks |  |
1,188,010 | 695,070 | 58.5 | 492,940 | 41.5 | 1,228,981 | 40,971 | 96.7 |
| Insects |  |
20,970,435 | 11,352,967 | 54.1 | 9,617,468 | 45.9 | 21,661,289 | 690,854 | 96.8 |
| Arachnids |  |
2,264,822 | 841,315 | 37.1 | 1,423,507 | 62.9 | 2,340,998 | 76,176 | 96.7 |
| Other Animals |  |
1,428,393 | 663,883 | 46.5 | 764,510 | 53.5 | 1,504,331 | 75,938 | 95.0 |
| Plants |  |
33,906,239 | 19,137,316 | 56.4 | 14,768,923 | 43.6 | 39,217,114 | 5,310,875 | 86.5 |
| Fungi |  |
4,703,249 | 1,281,591 | 27.2 | 3,421,658 | 72.8 | 4,842,804 | 139,555 | 97.1 |
| Chromista | 104,622 | 51,229 | 49.0 | 53,393 | 51.0 | 108,660 | 4,038 | 96.3 | |
| Protozoa | 114,869 | 28,953 | 25.2 | 85,916 | 74.8 | 117,808 | 2,939 | 97.5 | |
| Unknown | 492,734 | 8,291 | 1.7 | 484,443 | 98.3 | 2,754,043 | 2,261,309 | 17.9 | |
| All |  |
81,900,916 | 49,324,520 | 60.2 | 32,576,396 | 39.8 | 92,808,091 | 10,907,175 | 88.2 |
and here’s how it looked almost 2 years ago: