See pictures of the top ten cat breeds according to the CFA based on number of registrations. I have shown them in a collage. There is a key to the pictures below the collage.
I also include the ranking of all the CFA cat breeds for 2012 and the ranking for the GCCF, which is the number one British cat registry. The number of cat registrations produces a different outcome as to popularity compared to a simple popularity poll.
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According to a long running poll on PoC (now stopped) the following are the top ten most popular cat breeds over the period 2009-2012:
Does the the highest number of registrations at the CFA mean that these cats are the most popular? Despite being the authorized method of deciding cat breed popularity, I don’t believe it is necessarily accurate. This is because it presumes that all registered cats are adopted by the public. That is not happening as far as I know. It is breeders who decide to breed and they are not always driven by consumer demand like most businesses because cat breeders are often hobby breeders. They are not in it for profit.
Sometimes purebred cats are not typey enough and given to a friend or something like that. Is that how it works? I just think registrations ≠ popularity although it is a guideline, there is no doubt about it.
What we do know for sure is that for cat breeders in America, the list on this page from the CFA represents the most popular breeds. The same goes for the cat breeders in the UK for the GCCF list.
My poll was conducted over about 4 years and voting was from anyone, anywhere in the world. The cross-section of people voting on the poll more or less represented the countries where the domestic cat is the most popular. Whereas the registration are concerned with the USA (for CFA) and UK (for GCCF). This makes them less accurate in one sense or more limited.
However, the same cat breeds nearly always find their way into the top 10 or dozen. It is just about the order. One obvious anomaly with the CFA registrations is that they don’t accept wild cat hybrids and therefore the Bengal and Savannah are out. The Bengal is a highly popular, mainstream cat breed, which is reflected in my poll.
