Cat and dog owning households in Sweden 2010-2018

From 2010 to 2017, the share of cats in Swedish households was higher than the share of dogs. In 2018, 20 percent of households owned at least one cat, while there were 15 percent of dog-owning households. The number of the popular pet animal cats grew in this period from 1.27 million to 1.44 million cats.   

Most popular cat breeds 

The Ragdoll cat breed came first in the popularity ranking measured by number of purchased animals in Sweden in 2018. In this year, nearly 2.2 thousand animals of this breed were bought. The Siberian cat ranked second with a number of around 1.5 thousand purchased cats, ahead of the Maine Coon cat and the Norwegian Forest cat.

 Pet dogs 

In Sweden in 2010, there were 749 thousand pet dogs. This number increased by more than 100 in 2018 and peaked at 880 animals. As of this year, the Labrador Retriever was the most purchased dog breed in the country, reaching almost 2.7 thousand animals. It was followed by approximately 1.9 thousand purchased German Shepherd dogs as well as Golden Retriever dogs.