Cats have been the most common pets in Europe for many years. In 2022, Europe will be home to 127 million cats living in 26% of households. The popularity of cats seems to be growing all over the world. The highly urbanized human population in Europe may find cats to be more convenient as cats often require less space and maintenance than dogs in general. As urbanization becomes more common around the world, many of the same factors that encourage cat ownership in Europe may fuel the popularity of cats in other regions. A report by Markets and Markets identified five emerging markets for cat food.
5 countries with emerging cat food markets
China – China leads the cat food industry in these five countries. China’s cat care market revenue will reach US$5.80 billion by 2022, according to Markets and Markets analysts. They forecast that China’s cat care industry will reach US$13.39 billion by 2027, followed by Brazil and Mexico with projected values of $1,107.3 and $680.5 million, respectively.
Brazil – Brazil will have the second largest cat care market in 2022 at US$884.4 million. That amount is estimated to increase to US$1,107.3 million by 2022.
Mexico – Mexico’s cat care market is third with a value of US$545.7 million, which is likely to grow to US$680.5 million by 2027.
South Africa – As pet ownership becomes more widespread in South Africa, especially in urban areas, there is a growing demand for high quality food products and accessories. With rising disposable incomes and a growing middle class, consumers are spending more on cat food, treats and other products.
India – With an emerging middle class and increasing urbanization, cat ownership in India is growing.
These five countries will add US$7.43 billion to the global cat care industry by 2022, according to Markets and Markets analysts. Together, Brazil, South Africa, India, China and Mexico had a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.7% between 2007 and 2011. Analysts forecast these markets to reach a combined value of US$15.42 billion by 2027, with a CAGR of 15.7% from 2022-27.
Rising kitten population in the United States
While dogs remain the most common pet in the United States, the number of cats is increasing. The kitten population is particularly informative, Packaged Facts director of pet market research David Sprinkle writes in his Petfood Industry column.
MRI-Simmons trended data shows the number of US households with a puppy under one year of age will decrease from 5.6 million in 2014 to 4.4 million in 2023. In contrast, the number of households with a kitten increased from 3.1 million to 3.9 million here. period. As a result of this opposite trend, the ratio of kitten households to puppy households has increased from 54% to 89% over the past 10 years (see Table 1). From another data point of view, 12% of current cat parents have kittens, while less than 9% of dog parents have puppies.
Hungary, France, Austria have the most pet cats per capita 2022
Rankings of pet cat populations in Europe do not reflect the prevalence of pet ownership. More populous countries naturally tend to have more pets, but they may not have the most pets per capita. However, ordering European countries by per capita pet ownership causes different patterns to emerge.
Last year, Russia had the highest pet cat population in Europe, according to the European Pet Food Industry Federation’s (FEDIAF) report “Facts & Figures 2022.” However, the country at large is not in the top 10 in cat ownership per capita. Instead, Hungary rose to the top.
To determine per capita cat ownership, I divided the FEDIAF pet ownership data by the human population in 2022, according to Worldometer statistics using United Nations data.
- HUNGARY: 0.24 cats per person
- FRANCE : 0.23 cats per person
- AUSTRIA: 0.23 cats per person
- LATVIA: 0.22 cats per person
- LITHUANIA: 0.22 cats per person
- ROMANIA: 0.22 cats per person
- ESTONIA: 0.22 cats per person
- BELGUIM: 0.22 cats per person
- SLOVENIA: 0.21 cats per person
- UKRAINE: 0.21 cats per person
