Argentina, The Country With The Highest Number Of Pets Per Inhabitant

Argentina doesn’t just stand out for being the homeland of Che Guevara and Lionel Messi. It also holds the record of being the country with the highest number of pets per inhabitant. According to the results of a study carried out by the company GFK, 80% of respondents said they have at least one domestic animal. This is an average much higher than the 56% of the global population estimated to have companion animals.

Argentines are more “dogs” and prefer dogs to cats

The survey was conducted in 22 countries and 27 thousand people were consulted. Among its conclusions, we can highlight:

• After Argentina, the nations with the most animals are Mexico (79%), Russia (73%) and the USA (70%).
• Argentina also leads among nations that choose to have dogs as pets. 66% of people who own pets choose dogs.

• The preference for dogs is repeated in other Latin American nations. This is the case in Mexico (64%) and Brazil (58%). Half of Americans with pets, in turn, also choose them.
• The places with the highest number of domestic cats per population are Russia (57%), France (41%) and the USA (39%). Also, generally speaking, Europeans tend to lean more towards cats as pets.

Asian countries, among those with the fewest pets

Among other information obtained by this global survey, there is some curious data. For example:

• Three Asian countries are among those with the least amount of pets per person : South Korea (31%), Hong Kong (35%) and Japan (37%).
• China is where fish are most popular as companion animals. 17% of respondents said they had them at home. As well as 16% of the inhabitants of Turkey and 15% of those in Belgium also declared having fish as pets.

• 1 in 5 people living in Turkey said they chose birds as pets, as did 11% of the inhabitants of Spain and Brazil.

Other data on Argentina, the country with the highest number of pets per inhabitant

The recent study by GFK should confirm a survey carried out five years earlier, by the company Millward Brown, in Latin America.

At that time, it was concluded that Argentina was the country in that region with the highest number of pets, as 78% of respondents had declared they had one (63% dogs and 26% cats).

To reach this conclusion, 1,500 people between the ages of 18 and 65 were interviewed in the cities of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosário and Mendoza, as well as in different locations in the Buenos Aires suburb.

Among the data from these interviews, the following stand out:

• 1 in 3 homes where residents have chosen dogs have more than one dog.
• Half of domestic cats share a household with a dog.

Argentines prefer to adopt their pets

In addition to the good news that Argentina is the country with the highest number of pets per inhabitant, there are other very positive data, such as the fact that most respondents consider that domestic animals are one more member of their family. And adoption is also prioritized over the purchase of purebred animals.

Thus, 76% of dogs and 90% of pussies arrive in Argentine homes as a gift or because they were picked up from the street.

But as nothing is perfect, pet sterilization rates remain very low.

Undoubtedly, educating and raising awareness in this regard is a task that requires great efforts at a global level to avoid overpopulation and abandonment of domestic animals.