Pet population

With respect to veterinary consultations for pets, the total number of cats and dogs is the criterion to be assessed in our study. Although increasing, other pets (rodents, birds or new exotic pets) do not make up a significant proportion of veterinary consultations.

Pet population in millions

Country	DK	ES	FI	FR	HU	PT	RO	SI	SK	UK
Pets	1,4	7,3	1,05	18,5	3,6	5,0	2,2	0,28	1,69	18,0

The above chart shows that France and the United Kingdom are the two leading countries for the total number of cats and dogs with 18.5 and 18 million respectively. This may clearly be correlated with population of each country. Spain ranks 3rd with 7.3 million cats and dogs followed by Portugal with 5 million cats and dogs. NB: The figures for these two countries are no doubt under estimations due to the large number of stray animals. Finally, Slovakia, Denmark, Finland and Slovenia have less than 2 million cats and dogs.