Which country has the highest rate of dog ownership?
In the GfK global pet survey, Argentina had the highest rate of dog ownership, with 66% of people saying they owned a dog, followed by Mexico (64%), Brazil (58%) and the United States (50%) [1]. Russia had the highest rate of cat ownership at 57%. Across all 22 countries surveyed, 33% of people owned a dog and 23% owned a cat [1].
The chart by GfK shows both rates side by side. It comes from interviews with more than 27,000 people aged 15 and over, carried out online between June and August 2015 and published in 2016 [1]. It is still one of the few surveys that asks the same question in the same way across countries on several continents, which is why it is so widely shared.
Dog and cat ownership by country
This is the share of people in each country who owned at least one dog or cat, sorted by dog ownership [1].
| Country | Own a dog | Own a cat | More popular |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | 66% | 32% | Dogs |
| Mexico | 64% | 24% | Dogs |
| Brazil | 58% | 28% | Dogs |
| United States | 50% | 39% | Dogs |
| Poland | 45% | 32% | Dogs |
| Australia | 39% | 29% | Dogs |
| Italy | 39% | 34% | Dogs |
| Czechia | 38% | 26% | Dogs |
| Spain | 37% | 23% | Dogs |
| Canada | 33% | 35% | Cats |
| Belgium | 29% | 33% | Cats |
| France | 29% | 41% | Cats |
| Russia | 29% | 57% | Cats |
| United Kingdom | 27% | 27% | Level |
| China | 25% | 10% | Dogs |
| Netherlands | 25% | 26% | Cats |
| Sweden | 22% | 28% | Cats |
| Germany | 21% | 29% | Cats |
| South Korea | 20% | 6% | Dogs |
| Japan | 17% | 14% | Dogs |
| Hong Kong | 14% | 10% | Dogs |
| Turkey | 12% | 15% | Cats |
Dogs were the more common pet in 13 of the 22 places and cats in eight, with the UK level at 27% for each. The biggest gaps in favour of dogs were in Mexico (40 points) and Argentina (34 points), and the biggest in favour of cats was in Russia (28 points).
Where dogs are most popular
Latin America stands out. Argentina, Mexico and Brazil take the top three places for dog ownership, and in all three more than half of people own a dog, roughly twice the share who own a cat [1]. The United States comes next, and it is the only country in the survey where at least half of people own a dog and close to 40% own a cat, so it ranks high on both.
In Europe, Poland, Italy, Czechia and Spain all lean towards dogs. Northern and Western Europe is more mixed: France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands all had more cat owners than dog owners, and the UK was level [1].
East Asia has the lowest pet ownership of any region in the survey. South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan had the highest shares of people with no pets at all, at 68%, 64% and 63% [1]. Where people there do keep a pet, a dog is still more likely than a cat. China had the highest rate of fish ownership in the survey (17%), and Turkey the highest rate of bird ownership (20%), more than owned a dog or a cat [1].
Dog population by country
A high share of owners does not always mean a large number of dogs, because population size matters as much as the rate. The most recent counts from national pet associations give a different picture.
- The United States has about 88.9 million pet dogs and 77.0 million pet cats, and 43.7% of US households own a dog, against 34.1% that own a cat, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association’s 2026 survey [2].
- Europe has about 91 million pet dogs and 111 million pet cats, so cats outnumber dogs there [3]. The UK has the most dogs in Europe at 13.4 million, followed by Germany (10.5 million), France (9.7 million), Italy (9.0 million), Poland (8.3 million) and Spain (7.0 million) [3]. These are 2024 figures from FEDIAF, the European pet food industry body, published in June 2026.
- Worldwide, HealthforAnimals estimates there are likely to be over a billion pets, with families in the US, Brazil, the EU and China alone owning more than half a billion dogs and cats [4].
The GfK figures and these counts measure different things. GfK asked people whether they owned a dog, so a person with three dogs counts once. The association figures count animals, and the AVMA and FEDIAF figures count households.
How reliable the survey figures are
GfK interviewed between about 830 and 1,540 people per country online and weighted the results to match each country’s online population aged 15 and over [1]. That has two effects you should bear in mind. In countries where many people were not online in 2015, the survey describes the better connected part of the population, not everyone. And because it asked individuals rather than households, its rates are not directly comparable with household figures from national surveys.
Pet ownership has also changed since the fieldwork in 2015. Pet numbers rose in many countries during the pandemic, and HealthforAnimals reports that ownership is rising globally, especially in millennial households and in emerging markets with a growing middle class [4]. Treat the GfK rates as a comparison between countries at one point in time rather than as current figures.
Questions about dog ownership by country
Are there more cats or dogs in the world?
Nobody has counted every pet worldwide, so there is no definite answer. In the GfK survey more people owned a dog (33%) than a cat (23%) [1]. Counts of animals vary by region: the US has more pet dogs than cats (88.9 million against 77.0 million), while Europe has more cats than dogs (111 million against 91 million) [2][3]. Cats are often kept in multiples, which helps them catch up on numbers even where fewer people own one.
Which country has the most dogs?
The United States has the largest counted pet dog population, about 88.9 million [2]. In Europe the UK has the most, at 13.4 million [3].
What percentage of people in the world own a pet?
Across the 22 countries in the GfK survey, 57% of people owned at least one pet and 43% owned none [1]. HealthforAnimals estimates that more than half of the world’s homes have a pet [4].
Which country has the most cat owners?
Russia, where 57% of people surveyed owned a cat, followed by France (41%) and the United States (39%) [1].
Which countries have the fewest pet owners?
In the GfK survey, South Korea (68% with no pet), Hong Kong (64%) and Japan (63%) had the highest shares of people without any pet [1].
Sources
- GfK, Pet ownership, GfK global study, May 2016 (Portuguese language edition of the global results; fieldwork June to August 2015).
- American Veterinary Medical Association, U.S. pet ownership statistics, 2026 Pet Ownership and Demographic Sourcebook.
- FEDIAF, European pet population and market data 2024, Facts and Figures 2026.
- HealthforAnimals, Global Trends in the Pet Population, September 2022.
Last reviewed 9 November 2026
