The Best Places to Travel If You Just Want to Be Surrounded by Cats
It’s not surprising to learn that the US has the most cats of any country (the latest data shows a whopping 74 million of them). I know in our Florida neighborhood alone there are multiple colonies of stray cats, which thankfully we have a great local cat sanctuary to help TNR (Trap Neuter Return). While we have plenty of cats roaming in the US, most of them are thankfully indoors and cozy. Other countries, however, have streets full of cats that seemingly greet you around every corner.
Where Cats Have Actually Taken Over
While there is no exact data on the number of stray cats around the world, these are considered some of the more popular locations to see lots of outdoor cats!:
- Istanbul, Turkey: calls itself the world capital of cats, with food and water bowls left out on sidewalks all over the city. The relationship goes back to Byzantine and Ottoman times, and there’s a whole documentary about it, Kedi.
- Houtong Cat Village, Taiwan: a former coal-mining town that reinvented itself around its cats, with cat bridges, cat cafés, and souvenir stalls that meow at you.
- Aoshima, Japan: one of the country’s “cat islands,” where recent counts put it at around four human residents and roughly 80 cats. No dogs allowed. Tokyo also runs on cat cafés if a remote island is a lot.
- Hemingway Home, Florida Keys: about 60 six-toed cats, descended from Ernest Hemingway’s own polydactyl cat, still live on the museum grounds, with their own little fountain to drink from.
- Rome, Italy: Largo di Torre Argentina, the sunken ruins where Julius Caesar was killed, is now home to a colony of around 130 cats. Since 2023 you can walk down among the stones, and the city officially recognizes the cats as part of its heritage.
Greece, where the cats are just everywhere
A few years ago we experienced the adorable cats of Greece. My husband and I visited Santorini and Sifnos, and both islands had cats freely roaming the streets and hills. We would take walks through Oia in Santorini at sunset, and would see a dozen or so cats climbing on the top of white walls like they owned the place! We even had one that would greet us on our patio every day. In Sifnos it was the same thing, but this time we would get to hang out with them at a local restaurant in town. Every dinner on the patio one or two would come up and ask for pets (and food!).
The World’s Pet Cat Population, Ranked
So which country has the most cats? The list below gives you an idea of where the most cat PETS are (not strays). So while you might see a ton of cats on your vacation to Rome, Turkey, and Greece (more on that above!), this list only counts the domesticated cats that people report. These are World Population Review’s 2025 estimates:
- United States: 74.2 million
- China: 53.1 million
- Russia: 23.1 million
- Germany: 15.2 million
- France: 14.9 million
- Brazil: 13 million
- United Kingdom: 12.2 million
- Italy: 10.5 million
- India: 10 million
- Japan: 9.6 million
- Ukraine: 7.9 million
- Canada: 7.4 million
- Mexico: 7 million
- Poland: 6.6 million
- Spain: 6.4 million
- Pakistan: 5 million
- Australia: 3.9 million
- Argentina: 3.2 million
- Nigeria: 3 million
- Thailand: 3 million
- Netherlands: 3 million
- Indonesia: 2.5 million
- Egypt: 2.5 million
- Turkey: 2.4 million
- Belgium: 2.2 million
- Iran: 2 million
- South Korea: 2 million
- Malaysia: 2 million
- Kazakhstan: 2 million
- Sweden: 1.8 million
- Austria: 1.8 million
- Greece: 1.6 million
After Greece the list tapers off to countries with around 100,000 cats. The global total comes to roughly 353 million pet cats.
Here’s the catch: these are pet cats. Turkey and Greece sit low on this list even though their cats seem to be everywhere, because the cats you meet on those streets are strays and community cats, not house pets, and they never make it into these numbers.
Have you visited one of these cat-friendly locales? Tell us about it and share your pics at hello [at] catseat.com.
Hi! I’m Lindsay. I run this site alongside my hubs Cory and our very opinionated cats, Thelma and Louis. We’re so happy you’re here!