Does anyone know if there are statistics on how many dogs there are in the UK?

When we had the old licensing system I suppose it was easy to monitor the number of pet dogs that were around but how are statistics done now?  I know the KC will have numbers of registered pedigree dogs but there must be thousands of x-breeds and mongrels out there.  Are the numbers on the increase or declining in recent years?  Can anyone advise?

I should not think there is any accurate way of really finding out how many dogs there are - if the census does not accurately reflect the number of humans and that is supposed to be as accurate as it gets then there is no way of counting dogs.  Registrations don't help as you just know the number in a year = not how many are actually alive at the time.

So, the anwer to your question after deep and meaningful research and thought is
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LOTS  :D

Not a lot of help am I ?

I used to work for Mars and I know Pedigree have very accurate stats on the number of dogs and cats in UK. Don't know what the figures are though.

According to the RSPCA, the dog population of the UK is 7.2 million.
Just over 100,000 were registered with the KC in 2003 ( highest total 1996 - nearly 130,000).
Look here for stray dog figs from Dog's Trust;
http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/main.asp?structureid=373
Double the number you first thought of, add 3, multiply by 10 and umm ........................

Thanks Anwen

Visited the site link you gave and also searched google on RSPCA figures and found site by DEFRA which gave all sorts of statistical data.  The figure given there (published Dec. 2000) was 6.7 million with number of stays decreasing but still at approx 110, 000+ - encouraging and disconcerting at the same time!!