n the U.S., slightly more households own dogs than own cats. But Euromonitor’s numbers show that in terms of raw population, cats outnumber dogs to the tune of 2 million.

At the state level in the U.S., cats outnumber dogs in the Northeast and Upper Midwest. Dogs are the favorite in the South and Southwest. The most dog-friendly state is Arkansas, where dogs outnumber cats 1.35-to-1. At the other end of the spectrum stands Massachusetts with 1.87 cats for every dog.

Around the world the story is quite different. Euromonitor gave us estimates of the pet dog and cat populations in 54 countries, and some show a stark dog/cat divide. In India, for instance, pet dogs outnumber cats 10-to-1. Dogs enjoy a 2.5-to-1 advantage in China. On the other hand, cats outnumber dogs 3-to-1 in Switzerland, Austria and Turkey.

[H]ighly developed countries, for reasons yet unclear, tend to have more balanced cat and dog populations.

I can definitely vouch for these numbers in Turkey, though in Romania it was the dog who seemed to reign supreme.

I suppose there must be a massive secret population of cat ladies somewhere in Romania. Kind of sounds like biological terrorism put that way, but that could just be me still feeling less charitable than usual at one of my own cats eating my face this morning.

Top photo via Animal BFFS.
United States statistics via the American Veterinary Medical Association.
World statistics via Euromonitor.

Via Washington Post.