Most of Maryland Will Not Be Celebrating National Cat Day

National Cat Day is Saturday, Oct. 29, and cats will celebrate with the same disdain they have for everything else human. They’ll sit on the windowsill, look outside and ponder.

In the U.S., that’s about 60 million cats, who live in close to 32 million homes. In homes, there are nearly 18 million fewer cats than dogs. In back alleys, however, cats rule.

But BetMaryland.com will be honoring our feline friends and frenemies, and we’re doing so by looking at cat ownership by state.

Interestingly, Marylanders feel about cats the same way cats feel about Marylanders: They just don’t care.

Out of the nation’s 50 states, Maryland comes in 49th in terms of ownership, just ahead of Rhode Island.

Shockingly, there is no scientific research on why the good citizens of Maryland own cats at about 40% the rate of those who reside in Vermont and Maine, the top two states on the chart, or why Maryland has 1/3 less owned cats than the national average?

Have Maryland’s cats choked on its Terrapins, or been eaten by its Ravens?

2022 Cat Ownership Statistics by State

Rank State % of Cat Owners
1stVermont44.60%
2ndMaine43.60%
3rdWest Virginia37.70%
4thIndiana37.50%
5thNew Hampshire36.40%
Average27.86%
46thGeorgia20.40%
47thLouisiana19.00%
48thNew Jersey18.90%
49thMaryland18.60%
50thRhode Island16.70%


Where To Best Spend Nine Lives

One can see why New England would be popular for cats. They can run around outside, until a coyote or wolf snacks on them. Plus, those New England winters lead to cozy fires and cats do enjoy a warm place to sit and do nothing. 

We understand why cats are so popular in Japan, they’re considered a source of good luck. But why are cats so popular in Indiana?

With so little data to go on, we’re going to take a quick look at which cats are most popular.

In Maryland, the top breed is the Persian, according to Veterinarian’s Money Digest, which is also No. 1 in West Virginia, Indiana, New Hampshire and New Jersey. The Persian originally hails from Iran and made its way to Italy in the 1600s. It’s now the most popular pedigreed breed in the U.S. 

The Siamese, originally from Thailand, tops the list in Vermont, Georgia, Louisiana and Rhode Island and the Maine Coon is the pick of the litter in, you guessed it, Maine. The Maine Coon, a large, domesticated cat, got its start in Maine and is one of the oldest breeds on North America. The breed is considered to be friendly, furry and intelligent and has been nicknamed “The Gentle Giant.”

Methodology

BetMaryland.com utilized the AMVA Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook to gather statistics of cat owners by each U.S. state. After finding the statistics, we ranked the states from most to least amount of cat owners per residents.  

Check with BetMaryland.com for more stories like this and the best Maryland sportsbook promo codes when wagering on sports via mobile and online options launches in the state.

Author

Howard Gensler is a veteran journalist who’s worked at the Philadelphia Daily News, TV Guide and the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a founding editor of bettorsinsider.com.

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