What is the most cat-friendly country in the world?

According to the CatAbroad Cat Friendliness Index (2026), the United States ranks #1 with 81/100, followed by the United Kingdom at 80/100 and France and Germany tied at 78/100.

Which country has the most cats per capita?

Slovenia has the highest cat ownership rate per capita in the world, with approximately 0.24 cats per person — more than France (0.22) or the United States (0.21).

Why does the UK score lower than expected on cat friendliness?

The UK is one of a small number of countries that bans cats from arriving in the airline cabin — all cats must travel as cargo. Combined with the PETS scheme paperwork requirements, this reduces its Import Ease score and drops it to #2 behind the United States.

Why does Japan rank so highly despite strict quarantine rules?

Japan's rabies-free status and extraordinary cat culture — including over 150 cat cafés, 12 cat islands, and a deep cultural reverence for cats — offset its strict import rules. It ranks #14 overall.

Which countries ban cats from the airline cabin?

Countries that prohibit cats from travelling in the airline cabin include the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, Qatar, and Ireland. All require cats to travel as cargo or manifest freight.

The Cat Friendliness Index: Every Country Ranked (2026)

Which country is truly the best in the world for cats? Not just for cat owners — but for cats arriving from abroad, cats protected by law, and cats celebrated by culture. We built a composite index across five data-backed dimensions to find out. The results are surprising, occasionally controversial, and completely data-driven.

How We Scored Every Country

Every country is scored out of 100 across five equally weighted dimensions, each scored out of 20. Here is what each dimension measures and where the data comes from.

Cat Ownership Rate

Cats per capita by country. Slovenia leads the world at 0.24 cats per person. Source: World Population Review / FEDIAF 2025.

Rabies Status

Rabies-free, rabies-controlled, or high-rabies, per WOAH/CDC classifications. Directly determines quarantine and titer test requirements.

Animal Welfare Laws

World Animal Protection's Animal Protection Index (API) grades 50 countries A–G. No country achieved an A. Estimated for remaining nations.

Import Ease

How easy it is to bring a cat in: quarantine rules, permit complexity, and — critically — whether cats can travel in the airline cabin or must fly as cargo.

Cat Cultural Presence

Number of cat cafés (Meow Around / ThatCatLife 2025) plus notable cat culture: cat islands, legal street cat protections, cat shrines, dedicated cat media. The USA now leads the world with 300+ cat cafés.

Top 10 Cat-Friendly Countries

Western Europe dominates the top tier, scoring consistently across ownership rates, welfare legislation, and ease of travel. But the top two spots have a surprising twist.

The Stories Behind the Numbers

The United States at #1 is driven by a combination of the highest cat café count in the world (300+ as of late 2025, having overtaken Japan), the easiest cat import process of any major nation, and a high cat ownership rate. Its animal welfare legislation (a D from World Animal Protection) is the weakest point — animal sentience is not federally recognised — but it is outscored by the other four dimensions.

The UK at #2 (80/100) would rank #1 comfortably on three dimensions — it is rabies-free, has Grade B animal welfare legislation, and a thriving cat culture including Lady Dinah's and dozens of cat cafés. But it is one of only a handful of countries in the world that bans cats from the airline cabin entirely. Every cat entering the UK must travel as manifest cargo, regardless of size. This is a significant practical burden for any cat owner relocating internationally, and it costs the UK 4 points on Import Ease, dropping it from a likely #1 to #2.

Countries That Ban Cats from the Airline Cabin

The following countries require all cats to travel as cargo or manifest freight — no in-cabin travel is permitted regardless of size or airline:

🇬🇧 United Kingdom 🇦🇺 Australia 🇳🇿 New Zealand 🇯🇵 Japan 🇮🇪 Ireland 🇿🇦 South Africa 🇶🇦 Qatar

Japan at #14 (64/100) is the index's most fascinating outlier. Cat ownership per capita is low — many apartments in Japan prohibit pets, which is the very reason cat cafés became so popular. Japan scores the minimum points for ownership, and its import process (a minimum 180-day preparation timeline, cargo-only arrival) is among the world's most demanding. Yet Japan is rabies-free and scores maximum points on culture — 150+ cat cafés, 12 cat islands including the famous Aoshima, cat shrines, and a deeply embedded national cat aesthetic that gave the world "neko" culture. It is a cat-loving country that just makes it very hard to bring one in.

Slovenia at #15 (63/100) will surprise most readers. It has the highest cat-per-capita rate of any country on Earth at 0.24 cats per person — higher than France, higher than the United States. It is a near-unknown cat nation with almost no cultural profile (a tiny cat café scene) but an extraordinary density of cats per household. The EU entry rules keep import ease high. A hidden gem.

Turkey at #43 (47/100) is the index's most dramatic cultural wildcard. Its owned cat population is among the lowest per capita in the world (0.03 per person), it has high rabies risk, and a moderate welfare score. But Istanbul alone is estimated to have 125,000 street cats — celebrated, fed and cared for by residents, documented in the globally acclaimed film Kedi, and legally protected under Turkish municipal law. The culture score of 18/20 is one of the highest in the index. Turkey is a country where cats are not owned — they are shared.

Australia and New Zealand both score in the 56-range despite being rabies-free with strong welfare legislation. Both countries impose mandatory quarantine — a minimum of 10 days at a government facility — and neither allows cats in the airline cabin. The biosecurity requirements are scientifically justified given their unique ecosystems, but they are undeniably one of the most challenging destinations in the world to relocate a cat to.

Score Tiers Explained

S Tier
75–100

A Tier
60–74

B Tier
45–59

C Tier
35–44

D Tier
25–34

E Tier
15–24

F Tier
Below 15

The Full Interactive Index

Search, filter by tier, or sort by any individual dimension. Click any column header to re-rank the table.

Methodology & Caveats

This index is designed to be transparent and reproducible. Each of the five dimensions uses publicly available data from named sources. The 20-point scale for each dimension was normalised relative to the observed range across all 143 countries — maximum observed values score 20, minimum values score 1, with proportional scaling in between, adjusted for qualitative tiers where appropriate (particularly the rabies status dimension, which has three discrete categories rather than a continuous range).

The World Animal Protection Index covers only 50 countries. For the remaining 93 countries, welfare scores were estimated based on regional patterns, presence or absence of basic animal cruelty legislation (documented by WorldPopulationReview), and constitutional animal welfare provisions per Wikipedia's animal rights country comparison. These estimates carry more uncertainty than the WAP-sourced scores.

Cat café counts are approximate, particularly outside the USA and Japan where systematic tracking is limited. The Meow Around directory and ThatCatLife's USA tracking (December 2025) were the primary sources. Cultural scores for countries like Turkey, Morocco, and Greece include qualitative weight for street cat culture that cannot be precisely quantified — these judgements are explained in the article narrative above.

The index will be updated annually. If you believe a score is incorrect or have a data source that would improve accuracy, please contact us.