Hong Kong
It’s an age-old query: are you a cat individual or a canine individual?
In East Asia, it appears more and more people lately are Team Cat.
Take Taiwan, the self-ruled island the place pet cats outnumbered canines for the primary time in 2025, in line with a authorities survey. The pet cat inhabitants has surged quickly, from 1.3 million in 2023 to 1.7 million final 12 months – a rise of almost 33%.
The similar factor occurred in mainland China in 2021. Japan was maybe the earliest originator of this development, with cats overtaking canines a decade in the past. Even in locations the place canines are nonetheless more widespread, like South Korea or Hong Kong, cats are rising in recognition.
All these locations have sure components in widespread: people dwelling in small residences in dense cities, usually lonely, and dealing busy jobs that go away little time for a canine companion.
“Having a cat would be more convenient (in a city), because you have to frequently take dogs out for walks, you might not have that much time, and some people are afraid of dogs,” mentioned Hong Kong resident Ellen Chung, chatting with NCS one afternoon at a cat café full of guests and frock-wearing cats.
And, she added, “I think cats are just cuter.”
If these components sound acquainted, it might be as a result of they’ve additionally contributed to declining beginning charges in each one in every of these locations – regardless of governments’ finest makes an attempt to reverse the development.
“People choose not to have kids now. So having a pet almost resembles having a child,” mentioned Paul Wong, a scientific psychologist who works with remedy animals and affiliate professor on the University of Hong Kong (HKU).
The mixed challenges of metropolis life “would probably make people feel like having cats rather than dogs,” he added.
Stressed, busy and lonely
Some of those locations have a historical past of cat mania that helped gasoline the present feline growth.
For occasion, Japan is the house of Hello Kitty, the little cartoon cat created in 1974 that launched an $80 billion empire. It additionally has a number of “cat islands” with feral feline populations, which have develop into in style vacationer locations.
But cats have had a more tough time elsewhere. For a few years, people in South Korea related them with in poor health fortune or evil spirits – partly why they had been traditionally a lot much less in style as pets than canines.
That’s slowly altering, nevertheless. The variety of pet cats in South Korea has risen sharply because the Covid-19 pandemic – maybe as a result of cats are simpler to take care of indoors, with outside actions restricted by Covid restrictions for a number of years, in line with a 2025 report by KB Financial Group.
Gong Su-hyun, a veterinarian on the Ballyeomaru cat adoption middle in Hwaseong, a metropolis in northwestern South Korea, instructed NCS she might “feel that the interest in cats is growing.” More people are coming in for cat adoptions and volunteering than earlier than, she mentioned.
The principal distinction within the final decade or so has been a psychological shift, from considering of animals as utilitarian to companion pets, mentioned Wong at HKU. For occasion, earlier than canines had been primarily used for safety or different functions, whereas cats had been used for pest management; now, they are used for “tackling loneliness,” he added.
Meanwhile, many locations throughout East Asia have seen large adjustments in demographic and social developments in current many years. Across China, Japan and South Korea, younger people left their countryside houses in droves to seek out work in main cities, usually forsaking emptying villages occupied by a shrinking variety of aged people.
But metropolis life brings its personal challenges. Many younger East Asians are going through hyper-competitive job markets, stagnating wages, excessive dwelling prices, and brutal work hours.
China’s extreme work tradition grew to become such an issue that it was condemned by the country’s top court in 2021. Similarly, there’s a particular phrase for “death by overwork” in Japan, the place the federal government has imposed authorized limits on time beyond regulation.
“These conditions make cats a more practical option, especially for the younger generation,” mentioned Joe Ngai, assistant professor at Hong Kong Shue Yan University’s Department of Counselling and Psychology. “As cats adapt well to indoor environments, do not require daily walks, it offers a form of companionship that fits more easily within the constraints of urban life in Hong Kong.”
These pressures are amongst quite a lot of causes younger Asians are more and more selecting not to get married or have kids. Japan’s population has shrunk for 16 consecutive years, whereas South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate. Similar developments are seen throughout the area.
But because the variety of single-person households will increase, so does loneliness. Some younger people withdraw from the world fully for extended intervals of time, a phenomenon generally known as hikikomori. In the South Korean capital, authorities are spending almost $327 million on a five-year plan to fight loneliness. And in China, an app named “Are You Dead” requiring customers to test in day by day went viral for tapping right into a widespread sense of isolation.
In the absence of human firm, kids, or spouses – people flip to animals. They’re additionally opening their wallets, with Asia’s pet economic system booming.
A 2024 research report by funding financial institution Goldman Sachs discovered pet meals to be one of many fastest-growing shopper sectors in China, with the trade’s worth anticipated to surge to $12 billion in 2030. And in South Korea, more pet strollers than child strollers had been bought for the primary time in 2023, in line with the country’s largest online marketplace.
That won’t be welcome information for governments longing for more infants. But in lieu of kids, a kitty companion would possibly supply much-needed consolation to Asia’s struggling younger people.
“If peoples’ well-being improves,” mentioned Wong, “then maybe it’s still better than having a small population that’s a sad population.”