New Study Reveals Shocking Truth About Men Being Cat Parents

A new study on cat parents reveals a very interesting statistic about men being cat parents, and it's the opposite of what we assumed.

Mars Global Pet Parent Study collected insights from more than 20,000 pet parents of dogs and cats across 20 different countries. And they found some very interesting findings. Take a look!

According to the report , which was released on October 2, 2024 , there are some things we might have assumed about pet parents that this study shows otherwise.

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An online survey was sent to both cat/dog parents and non-pet parents in 20 different markets, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Poland, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, China, and Japan.

The people who participated in the survey are between 18 and 65 and are responsible for caring for their pets. After compiling all the data and sifting through it, the survey found a very interesting point about cat parents that isn't what many might expect.

According to the survey, there are more cat guys than cat ladies. The survey findings show that not only are cat parents more common than dog parents, but there are more cat dads (52%) than cat ladies (48%), and cat parenthood is more common than dog parenthood overall, too.

Given how often we hear the term "cat lady," it's interesting to see that when we look at pet parents globally, there are more cat dads, and that's really cute.

The Survey Also Found that Overall, Pet Parenthood Is on the Rise

Pet parenthood is also on the rise, with "one billion pets across the world," and that number is likely to continue growing.

The survey also found that 45% of Gen Z pet parents and 40% of Millennial pet parents consider their pets "the most important thing in their life," compared to 29% of Baby Boomers.

And there are currently more first-time pet parents than ever before.

"Almost half (47%) of those surveyed are first-time owners, signaling a new era of pet parents," Ikdeep Singh, Global President of Mars Pet Nutrition, said in the press release.

"We know that pet parents are evolving, and we need to evolve with them, which means embedding pet parent centricity into our DNA to transform the experience and build lifelong relationships with the 455 million pets and pet parents we reach.”

There are many benefits pet parents receive when they have a cat in their lives. For those who participated in the survey, entertainment (48%) and stress relief (44%) were the two main things they appreciated from their cats. Dog parents said unconditional love (50%) and family completeness (49%) were their two main benefits.

"We’re always working on the next big thing in pet parenting, using the insights from this study to continuously innovate and adapt to solve pet parent pain points, Singh said.

Concluding, "Pet parents aren’t born – they become, which is why we must ensure they have the advice, guidance, and support they need along every step of their journey.”