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Dog Vs Cat Map Of The United States

November 2, 2015 Leave a Comment

Dog Vs Cat Map Of The United States

Map showing the relative popularity of dogs vs cats by state

It’s official (well at least if Google can be trusted) the US prefers dogs over cats. We arrived at this conclusion simply by comparing monthly Google searches for the term ‘dog’ compared to ‘cat.’

However, the map above does not tell the whole story.

According to Google’s keyword planner data for September 2015, there were 586,720 searches for ‘dog’ vs just 511,980 for ‘cat.’ While these numbers may not be entirely accurate, they strongly imply that the US is a dog country.

The 10 states with the biggest bias for dogs over cats were (full data at the end of this post):

  1. Arkansas
  2. Alabama
  3. Louisiana
  4. Mississippi
  5. Nevada
  6. Oklahoma
  7. Delaware
  8. Montana
  9. Maine
  10. Hawaii

The 3 states with a relatively greater interest in cats over dogs were:

  1. South Dakota
  2. New Hampshire
  3. Vermont

However, the data only looks at relative interest only! And not absolute interest. So a state could search a lot for both dogs and cats, yet still show a bias towards dogs.

Therefore to provide a fairer picture, here are the number of searches per capita per month (note numbers are per 1,000 people to make the comparison a bit easier).

Dog popularity map of the United States

Map showing the per capita interest in dogs by state

On a per capita basis, state rankings look a little different. The top 10 are:

  1. Washington DC
  2. Nevada
  3. Texas
  4. Georgia
  5. Massachusetts
  6. Washington
  7. Illinois
  8. Florida
  9. Oregon
  10. California

Similarly, we also looked at the per capita popularity of cats by state:

Cat popularity map of the United States

Map showing the per capita interest in cats by state

The top 10 states with greatest per capita search volume for cats are:

  1. Washington DC
  2. Oregon
  3. California
  4. Colorado
  5. Texas
  6. Arizona
  7. Minnesota
  8. Georgia
  9. Massachusetts
  10. New Hampshire

It turns out that 6 of the top 10 states searching for ‘cat’ were also in the top 10 searching for ‘dog.’ So perhaps the difference is less about dog vs cat and more between those who like having pets and those that don’t.

What do you think? You can leave your comments at the end of this article.

Looking for more in the dog vs cat debate? Then have a look at the following:

  • Dog vs. Cat
  • National Geographic Readers: Cats vs. Dogs
  • Dog vs. Cat: A Nation Divided: Dirty Tricks and Other Shocking Secrets from a Nasty Pet Election
  • Cat Dog Theology: Rethinking Our Relationship with Our Master
  • Cats vs. Dogs (A Coloring Book)
  • CafePress Schrodinger’s Cat Vs. Pavlov’s Dog T-Shirt

Full Data:

States most interested in dogs relative to cats:

  1. Arkansas – 1.52X more searches for dog vs cat
  2. Alabama – 1.50X
  3. Louisiana – 1.50X
  4. Mississippi – 1.50X
  5. Nevada – 1.50X
  6. Oklahoma – 1.50X
  7. Delaware – 1.30X
  8. Montana – 1.30X
  9. Hawaii – 1.26X
  10. Maine – 1.26X
  11. Kansas – 1.23X
  12. South Carolina – 1.23X
  13. Utah – 1.23X
  14. Georgia – 1.23X
  15. Pennsylvania – 1.23X
  16. Florida – 1.22X
  17. Massachusetts – 1.22X
  18. Virginia – 1.22X
  19. Washington – 1.22X
  20. Michigan – 1.22X
  21. North Carolina – 1.22X
  22. Indiana – 1.22X
  23. Iowa – 1.22X
  24. Kentucky – 1.22X
  25. Maryland – 1.22X
  26. Missouri – 1.22X
  27. Tennessee – 1.22X
  28. Texas – 1.22X
  29. Wisconsin – 1.22X
  30. Illinois – 1.22X
  31. New Mexico – 1.21X
  32. West Virginia – 1.21X
  33. Alaska – even
  34. Arizona
  35. California
  36. Colorado
  37. Connecticut
  38. Idaho
  39. Minnesota
  40. Nebraska
  41. New Jersey
  42. New York
  43. North Dakota
  44. Ohio
  45. Oregon
  46. Rhode Island
  47. Washington DC
  48. Wyoming – even
  49. Vermont – 1.22X more searches for ‘cat’ vs ‘dog’
  50. New Hampshire – 1.26X
  51. South Dakota – 1.30X

Searches for ‘dog’ per 1,000 people:

  1. Washington DC – 6.68
  2. Nevada – 2.39
  3. Texas – 2.32
  4. Georgia – 2.24
  5. Massachusetts – 2.23
  6. Washington – 2.15
  7. Illinois – 2.10
  8. Florida – 2.10
  9. Oregon – 2.08
  10. California – 1.95
  11. Colorado – 1.91
  12. Utah – 1.89
  13. Kansas – 1.87
  14. North Carolina – 1.86
  15. Indiana – 1.85
  16. Arizona – 1.85
  17. Minnesota – 1.84
  18. Michigan – 1.83
  19. Virginia – 1.81
  20. Maine – 1.81
  21. Pennsylvania – 1.74
  22. Oklahoma – 1.73
  23. Wisconsin – 1.73
  24. Hawaii – 1.72
  25. South Carolina – 1.71
  26. New York – 1.69
  27. Maryland – 1.68
  28. Alabama – 1.68
  29. New Jersey – 1.67
  30. Missouri – 1.64
  31. Ohio – 1.57
  32. West Virginia – 1.56
  33. Nebraska – 1.56
  34. Tennessee – 1.53
  35. Rhode Island – 1.52
  36. Kentucky – 1.51
  37. Connecticut – 1.50
  38. Idaho – 1.50
  39. Arkansas – 1.49
  40. New Hampshire – 1.44
  41. Louisiana – 1.43
  42. Iowa – 1.43
  43. Delaware – 1.42
  44. New Mexico – 1.39
  45. Alaska – 1.37
  46. Montana – 1.29
  47. North Dakota – 1.26
  48. Wyoming – 1.25
  49. Mississippi – 1.21
  50. South Dakota – 1.20
  51. Vermont – 1.15

Searches for ‘cat’ per 1,000 people:

  1. Washington DC – 6.68
  2. Oregon – 2.08
  3. California – 1.95
  4. Colorado – 1.91
  5. Texas – 1.90
  6. Arizona – 1.85
  7. Minnesota – 1.84
  8. Georgia – 1.82
  9. Massachusetts – 1.82
  10. New Hampshire – 1.82
  11. Washington – 1.75
  12. Illinois – 1.72
  13. Florida – 1.71
  14. New York – 1.69
  15. New Jersey – 1.67
  16. Nevada – 1.59
  17. Ohio – 1.57
  18. Nebraska – 1.56
  19. South Dakota – 1.56
  20. Utah – 1.54
  21. Kansas – 1.52
  22. Rhode Island – 1.52
  23. North Carolina – 1.52
  24. Indiana – 1.51
  25. Connecticut – 1.50
  26. Idaho – 1.50
  27. Michigan – 1.50
  28. Virginia – 1.48
  29. Maine – 1.43
  30. Pennsylvania – 1.42
  31. Wisconsin – 1.41
  32. Vermont – 1.41
  33. South Carolina – 1.40
  34. Maryland – 1.38
  35. Alaska – 1.37
  36. Hawaii – 1.36
  37. Missouri – 1.35
  38. West Virginia – 1.29
  39. North Dakota – 1.26
  40. Tennessee – 1.25
  41. Wyoming – 1.25
  42. Kentucky – 1.23
  43. Iowa – 1.17
  44. Oklahoma – 1.15
  45. New Mexico – 1.15
  46. Alabama – 1.12
  47. Delaware – 1.09
  48. Montana – 0.99
  49. Arkansas – 0.98
  50. Louisiana – 0.96
  51. Mississippi – 0.80

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