How Many Pets Are There in Europe? FEDIAF's 2024 Figures, Country by Country

12 July 2026 · Market data

FEDIAF's Facts & Figures 2026, published in June 2026 with data for 2024, count 306 million pets in 140 million European households: 111 million cats, 91 million dogs, and a country table that puts the United Kingdom, France and Italy on top.

The short answer: 306 million pets in 140 million homes

Europe is home to 306 million pets, according to FEDIAF's Facts & Figures 2026. The federation published the figures in June 2026 as part of its annual report; they describe the year 2024 and cover 41 of the 48 Council of Europe member states. Those pets live in 140 million households, which FEDIAF puts at 49% of all European households. Two details make the number easier to compare with other sources. FEDIAF counts aquaria and terraria as tanks, not as individual fish or reptiles, and it also publishes a total without aquaria: 278 million. The exact table total is 306,155,000, which rounds to the 306 million in the headline.

Cats 111 million, dogs 91 million: every species counted

The species breakdown for 2024 reads: 110,861,000 cats, 91,205,000 dogs, 43,954,000 ornamental birds, 27,749,000 aquaria, 22,504,000 small mammals and 9,882,000 terraria. FEDIAF rounds these to 111 million, 91 million, 44 million, 28 million, 23 million and 10 million on its overview page. Cats therefore outnumber dogs by about 20 million. Small mammals, the category that covers rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and the like, are larger than most people expect at 22.5 million. On aquaria the federation is explicit: "Most of our national associations provide FEDIAF with aquaria as they now understand that we collect aquaria not fish." So the 28 million are tanks, and the number of fish in them is unknown.

Where Europe's pets live: the country table

The table below lists the 17 countries with the most pets, sorted by total, with dogs and cats shown separately. Two things stand out. The United Kingdom tops the total with 49.5 million pets, but a large part of that is aquaria: FEDIAF counts 17.1 million of them in the UK against 2 million in Germany. Leave the tanks out and the UK, France, Italy and Germany sit within a few million of each other. The second is France: 16.7 million cats, more than any other country in Europe, and seven million more cats than dogs.

The five countries with the most dogs

FEDIAF's 2024 dog table puts the United Kingdom first with 13,400,000 dogs, followed by Germany (10,500,000), France (9,700,000), Italy (9,000,000) and Poland (8,282,000). Spain, often listed in the top five elsewhere, is sixth at 6,962,000, ahead of Ukraine (4,536,000) and Romania (4,258,000). If a ranking you find online looks different, check whether it is EU-only: those leave the United Kingdom out entirely, which moves every other country up a place. Across Europe as a whole, 91,205,000 dogs live in the 41 countries FEDIAF covers.

The five countries with the most cats

For cats the order changes. France leads with 16,700,000, then Germany (15,900,000), the United Kingdom (12,300,000), Italy (11,900,000) and Poland (7,463,000). Ukraine (6,944,000), Spain (4,939,000) and Türkiye (4,928,000) follow; the Netherlands, with 3,001,000 cats, is tenth. Households tell a slightly different story. FEDIAF's household table gives a European total of 31% of households owning at least one dog against 29% owning at least one cat. Cats lead on numbers, dogs lead on homes, because cat owners more often keep two or more. One caution on that household table: FEDIAF marks eight small countries as estimates, and its Spanish row (70% dog ownership) does not square with Spain's 6.96 million dogs, so treat the country-level percentages with care.

The market behind the pets: 29.4 billion euros and 8.6 million tonnes

European pet food sales stand at 29.4 billion euros a year on a volume of 8.6 million tonnes, produced by more than 400 companies in an estimated 350-plus plants. FEDIAF reports 4% value growth and 1% growth in the industry. The format split explains a lot about the shelves in any pet shop: 58% of pet food by volume is made for dogs and 41% for cats, yet cats account for 50% of the value against 46% for dogs. Cat food is far more often wet food (61% of cat food volume, 60% of its value), while dog food is mostly dry (60% of volume), with treats making up 27% of the value.

What FEDIAF does not tell you

Three things are missing or need a footnote. Employment figures no longer appear: the last published FEDIAF numbers are 283,000 direct and 2.3 million indirect jobs, from the edition covering 2022. The 49% household figure is extrapolated from the six national associations that supplied a household number (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom), not measured in all 41 countries. And the report's own foreword still quotes last year's 9.1 million tonnes and 29.3 billion euros, while its Facts & Figures pages say 8.6 million tonnes and 29.4 billion euros. This article uses the Facts & Figures pages.

How to read these figures without getting them wrong

FEDIAF publishes with a two-year lag: the 2026 edition describes 2024. Russia is no longer included (it still was in the edition covering 2022, which is why older totals such as 340 million are not comparable), and a set of smaller countries was added so that the data covers the EU, the EEA and most of the Council of Europe. FEDIAF itself advises against direct year-on-year comparisons because of those changes in coverage, although the 2026 appendix notes that the country list is unchanged from the previous report. The safe summary: about 306 million pets, more cats than dogs, and more dog-owning homes than cat-owning homes.

FAQ

Sources

• FEDIAF Annual Report 2026, section Facts & Figures 2026 (data for 2024), pages 23 to 36
• FEDIAF: Statistics, on the June 2026 figures and the two-year publication lag
• FEDIAF Facts & Figures, edition covering 2022 (last published employment figures)