Are There More Cats or Dogs in the World? 2026 Statistics Update
There are numerous cats and dogs in the world, as evidenced by the commercials on TV and the strays that are seen roaming most neighborhoods. There are also several cat and dog lovers in the world as well.
If you’re one of the many cats and dog lovers, you’ve probably wondered how many there are worldwide and which species is more abundant. It seems that dogs currently outweigh cats by roughly twice the number. Let's go into more detail below.
Are There More Cats or Dogs in the World?
At last estimate, it seems that there are more dogs than cats in the world. Of course, that is likely to change at any time. As of 2020, it seems that dogs outweigh cats by twice the number. This number, of course, only includes domestic pets and strays. It doesn’t include wild cats and wild dogs, meaning tigers, panthers, wolves, and coyotes.
In fact, it’s been estimated that there are more than 900 million dogs worldwide. As far as cats, at last count, it’s estimated that there are around 600 million cats worldwide. That’s quite a difference!
How Many Dogs Are There Worldwide?
You must keep in mind that this is only a rough number since it’s impossible to go house to house to count how many dogs a household has. Although it’s estimated that there are between 900 million to 1 billion dogs in the world, fewer than 300 million of these dogs are strays.
We’ll break it down a little further for you below. We can’t break down the animal population in every country, but we included a few in this article.
The United States
The United States is a pet-friendly country. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, roughly 60 to 62 million cats and 83 to 88 million dogs live in households across the United States. Remember, this doesn’t include the stray population, only those we know of in households.
More homes own dogs than cats. However, this is thought to be because most people have one dog and at least two cats on average. Sadly, there are still many strays in the shelters and on the streets that need to be given a forever home.
Asia
Though Asia has a high population, pets aren’t loved there as much as in Western countries. For example, China has fewer than 52 million pet dogs and 65 million pet cats. This is strange to some because China has more than five times the number of people that the United States has.
On the other hand, Japan is a smaller country but has over 9 million cats and and just under 7 million dogs at last count.
Europe
Europe is a continent of so many countries that it’s hard to accurately count how many dogs and cats they have. The most extensive pet survey was taken in 2023 and showed 11 million pet cats and 12 million pet dogs in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, countries like Germany have about 15 million pet cats and 10 million pet dogs. As a whole, Europe seems to have roughly 127 million pet cats and 104 million pet dogs.
Africa
Population numbers for cats and dogs are hard to come by in Africa because so many remote areas do not report pet statistics. South Africa has the most, with over 7 million dogs and only around 2 million cats. On the other hand, Chad seems to have around 25,000 dogs living in homes as pets but has no numbers for cats.
What About the Rest of the World?
As for the rest of the world, there are very few pet statistics in places like Oceania and South America. On the other hand, Australia publishes statistics but has a low number of pets because of their strict rules and regulations regarding animals. At last count, they had around 4 million domesticated cats and 5 million domesticated dogs.
Final Thoughts
While we all know that there are many cats and dogs in the world, it’s still impressive to look at the numbers and see just how many there really are. Many of the figures on this list are for dogs and cats that have been domesticated and live in forever homes. The numbers don’t always account for the animals in shelters or even the homeless ones that are starving on the streets.
The next time you decide to give a dog or cat a forever home, think about visiting your local animal shelter and adopting one. You’ll get a loyal companion that you can love and certainly will love you in return.
Sources
Featured Image Credit: New Africa, Shutterstock
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Patricia is an experienced pet writer and lifelong animal lover. When she isn’t writing, Patricia enjoys spending time with her pets, cats Binx and Link and dog Mystery. Mystery and Link have been with her since birth. Binx was found under her house as a kitten and promptly welcomed into the family. Patricia enjoys volunteering at her local rescue shelter and sharing her extensive knowledge of pets.
