Most Popular Cat Breed

Most Popular Cat Breed

by Michael
(London, UK)

Maine Coon cat - COWBOY - photo copyright Helmi Flick - please respect copyright.

Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

Maine Coon cat - COWBOY - photo copyright Helmi Flick - please respect copyright.

How do we decide the most popular cat breed? On this website there is a poll. All the mainstream cats are listed. Even some fringe cat breeds are listed. Over quite a long period of time (currently 2 years), the poll results indicate that the Maine Coon is the current leader. The Siamese (traditional conformation) is second. This is the public talking.

The PetPlace.com website says that the Persian is the most popular cat breed. The Oriental Shorthair as I recall is ranked highly on his assessment. Dr. Jon's figures come from the CFA, the biggest cat association in America (and the world for that matter). Yet these figures are based on the number of registrations with the CFA. Is this a good basis as opposed to a straight poll?

The CFA doesn't register some cats, such as the popular Bengal. The CFA is the cat association that has championed the flat faced and unhealthy Ultra typed Persian. Registrations are usually carried out by cat breeders, the people who produce the cats. Do the breeders automatically follow the market and only supply demand from other breeders and the public. I think not. Only if all the registered Persian cats bred were sold to the public could it be said that the Persian is the most popular cat breed if registrations were the sole criteria. It is the public's view that counts not the number of cats bred.

Perhaps the breeders are producing and registering too many Persian cats? The better test is to check the public's viewpoint in a direct poll. The average cat breeder's viewpoint might not reflect the public's viewpoint as to the most popular cat breed.

I sense that the PetPlace.com conclusions the assessment of which is based on CFA registrations is out of date. Things move on. The Persian was the most popular but is no longer perhaps in part because this cat breed is patently not the most healthy, particularly the ultra Persian (see Persian cat health). On my reckoning, the Persian cat breed has the second highest number of inherited diseases after the Siamese (see Genetic Diseases in Purebred Cats). Health of a cat breed counts for the public. This is the result of another ongoing survey:

Does cat breed health affect your choice of breed?


Yes - a lot
60.0% 177 votes
Yes - quite a lot
18.0% 53 votes
No
10.2% 30 votes
Yes - slightly
7.8% 23 votes
Not sure
4.1% 12 votes
Total 295 votes

The results of this sites long running poll is more accurate in my opinion:

This is as at May 2009

The poll results indicated above have changed little for the past 6 months. I conclude that Maine Coon cat is the most popular cat breed. The visitors to this site are predominantly from the USA and UK and then from a wide selection of countries making the results pretty reflective of world opinion. Why is the Maine Coon the most popular. Essentially because the cat has retained a normal (not extreme) appearance and is reasonably healthy still. Bottom line: people like large normal cats with long hair. Voters on this site's poll come from these countries in the following proportions:

Pictures-of-cats.org users come from these countries

(top 5 only listed)

src: Alexa:

  • 43.8% United States
  • 19.2% United Kingdom
  • 7.7% India
  • 6.7% Canada
  • 2.0% Indonesia

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