There is no reliable single worldwide count of tomato varieties. The number changes depending on whether “variety” means a named cultivar, a tomato species, a market type such as cherry or paste, or a preserved sample in a seed collection.
Why there is no definitive global total
People use “variety” to mean different things. A cultivar is a named cultivated type. A market type describes traits or intended use—for example, cherry tomatoes for snacking or paste tomatoes for sauce—and is not a count of individual cultivars. An accession is a distinct sample maintained in a germplasm collection; it can represent a cultivar, a breeding stock, a species, or other genetic material.
Those categories overlap, and no authoritative worldwide registry of named tomato cultivars is established in the sources available. In the United States, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service says that the country has no mandatory plant variety registration system. Its variety-name database tracks agricultural and vegetable seed names sold in the United States, a defined scope rather than a global census. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service variety-name database.
What USDA’s collection count tells us
The USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Plant Genetic Resources Unit lists more than 6,600 accessions in its tomato (Solanum) collection, including 5,600 Solanum lycopersicum accessions and 15 unique species. USDA notes that the genus includes many species, with lycopersicum (tomato) and pimpinellifolium (currant tomato) among the most common. These figures describe preserved genetic material in one collection—not the number of named tomato cultivars worldwide. USDA ARS tomato collection.
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Other USDA work illustrates how varied the material can be without providing a total. A 2021 ARS report partially genome-sequenced 190 tomato stocks from 31 countries, including fresh-fruit, ornamental, paste or sauce, breeder, farmer-variety, and home-gardening types. That is a research sample, not a count of varieties in the world. USDA ARS report on tomato stocks.
How to choose among tomato varieties
If the goal is to grow tomatoes, a global total is less useful than comparing a few practical traits. A University of California Cooperative Extension guide provides examples of cultivars and explains these distinctions; its recommendations are local rather than universal, so match choices to your own climate and growing season. UC Cooperative Extension tomato guide.
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Choose by fruit use
- Fresh eating: Look for slicing or other fresh-fruit types suited to how you plan to serve them.
- Snacking: Cherry tomatoes are a common small-fruited option.
- Sauce: Paste or sauce types are intended for processing and cooking.
Check plant growth habit and space
- Determinate: Shorter, bushier plants that tend to produce over a shorter period.
- Indeterminate: Vining plants that continue growing and often produce until frost.
- Semideterminate: A more compact indeterminate type.
Consider seed type if you want to save seeds
Open-pollinated tomatoes can reproduce the same type when grown true to type. Seeds saved from a hybrid will not reliably produce tomatoes like the parent plant. Choose open-pollinated seed if dependable seed saving is a priority.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What variety counts can—and cannot—show
Counts from collections, trials, and databases answer different questions. For example, a USDA ARS publication described trials characterizing 44 heirloom tomato varieties at three locations in 2009; that figure applies to those trials, not to the number of heirlooms or tomato varieties overall. USDA ARS heirloom tomato publication.
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So the most accurate answer remains that there is no established worldwide count of named tomato varieties. Official collection figures document substantial diversity, but they should not be mistaken for a complete tally of the cultivars people grow or can buy.
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