How many cat breeds are there?

It depends on the registry: each recognises its own list, and the totals are far lower than for dogs. This page covers sixteen of the best-known breeds.

Which cat breed lives longest?

Of the breeds measured in the VetCompass UK study, Burmese and Birman share the highest life expectancy at birth at 14.4 years.

Which breeds need the most grooming?

The long-coated ones. For the Maine Coon the CFA notes that breeders recommend combing to control shedding, prevent hairballs and protect against matting.

Cat breeds list

There are far fewer cat breeds than dog breeds, and the gap is not an accident: cats were not selectively bred into working types for thousands of years the way dogs were, so most of the recognised breeds are recent and the differences between them are mostly coat, colour and build rather than function. Registries each recognise their own list, which is why totals differ. Below are the sixteen breeds covered on this site, with the figures the Cat Fanciers' Association publishes.

Updated on 2026-10-07.

Breed-level figures describe populations, not the animal in front of you. For anything about a specific cat's health or care, consult a veterinarian.

A Maine Coon cat — Photo: Takashi Hososhima — CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The facts in one table

Breed	Coat	Shedding	Weight	Life expectancy
Maine Coon	long	high	≥ 9 kg	—
Ragdoll	long	moderate	≥ 9 kg	—
Norwegian Forest Cat	long	high	4.1–7.3 kg	—
Siberian	long	high	3.6–8.2 kg	—
Persian	long	high	—	—
Birman	long	moderate	—	14.4 years
British Shorthair	short	high	—	—
Siamese	short	moderate	—	11.7 years
Oriental	short	moderate	—	—
Abyssinian	short	low	—	—
Burmese	short	low	≥ 5.4 kg	14.4 years
Russian Blue	short	moderate	2.3–4.5 kg	—
Bengal	short	low	—	—
Devon Rex	curly	low	2.7–4.1 kg	—
Cornish Rex	curly	low	—	—
Sphynx	nearly hairless	low	—	6.8 years

Coat and adult weight from the CFA breed pages; life expectancy at birth from the VetCompass UK cat life tables for the four breeds that study reports.

Sources: Cat Fanciers' Association · Royal Veterinary College — VetCompass

Our own chart, from the module’s breed database (each breed’s official standard).

Why there are so few cat breeds

Dogs were shaped for jobs — herding, guarding, retrieving, pulling, hunting by scent or sight — and each job produced a body. Cats had one job, and it did not require a redesign: a cat that hunts rodents around a settlement is already the right animal. Almost all selective breeding of cats is recent and aesthetic, which is why the recognised breeds cluster around coat length, coat texture, colour pattern and head shape.

The consequence for anyone comparing breeds is that temperament differences between cat breeds are smaller and less documented than between dog breeds. Registry breed pages describe personality in general terms, and there is nothing equivalent to the functional groups a kennel club uses for dogs.

Source: Cat Fanciers' Association

What actually differs between the breeds

Coat is the first real split, and it is the one that changes daily life. The CFA classifies breeds by coat length, and the long-coated breeds — Maine Coon, Ragdoll, Norwegian Forest Cat, Siberian, Persian, Birman — need combing to control shedding, prevent hairballs and stop matting, which the CFA says breeders recommend for the Maine Coon specifically. The curly and near-hairless breeds sit at the other end: the Cornish Rex has no outer guard hairs, the Sphynx is described as the "hairless" cat.

Size is the second, and it is narrower than people expect. Across the recognised breeds, published adult weights run roughly from the Russian Blue, where the CFA notes males rarely exceed 10 pounds, to the Maine Coon and Ragdoll, where mature males may reach or exceed 20 pounds. That is a factor of two, where dogs span a factor of forty.

Sources: Cat Fanciers' Association · Cat Fanciers' Association

The one hard number: how long they live

The VetCompass study of 7,936 UK cats that died between 2019 and 2021 is the best measurement available, and it does report by breed for a few. Burmese and Birman come out highest at 14.4 years of life expectancy at birth, followed by crossbreeds at 11.9 and Siamese at 11.7, against 11.74 years for cats overall. The Sphynx is the outlier at 6.8 years.

Those are the only four breeds in this table with a figure, and the rest of the column is deliberately empty. Publishing an estimate for the others would look more complete and mean less.

Sources: Royal Veterinary College — VetCompass · Royal Veterinary College

A siamese cat — Photo: Meekahoo — CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

What most people get wrong

"There are hundreds of cat breeds." Registries recognise far fewer than for dogs, and the totals differ between organisations.
"Cat breeds differ in temperament the way dog breeds do." The differences are mostly coat, colour and build; temperament differences are smaller and much less documented.
"Pedigree cats live longer." In the VetCompass data crossbreeds reach 11.9 years, above the Siamese at 11.7 and far above the Sphynx at 6.8.

Sources: Cat Fanciers' Association · Royal Veterinary College — VetCompass

Frequently asked questions

How many cat breeds are there?: It depends on the registry: each recognises its own list, and the totals are far lower than for dogs. This page covers sixteen of the best-known breeds.
Which cat breed lives longest?: Of the breeds measured in the VetCompass UK study, Burmese and Birman share the highest life expectancy at birth at 14.4 years.
Which breeds need the most grooming?: The long-coated ones. For the Maine Coon the CFA notes that breeders recommend combing to control shedding, prevent hairballs and protect against matting.

How to read the numbers

The numbers on “Cat breeds list” come from the facts table at the top, with the official source alongside.

Where the data comes from

Each section of “Cat breeds list” names its source (agency, university or breed club) with a verification date.

What this page doesn’t replace

Educational information, not a substitute for a vet, agronomist or specialist assessing your specific case.

Go deeper at the official source

To go deeper than “Cat breeds list”, the source named below publishes the original document.

Cat Fanciers' Association

Words on this page

Hypoallergenic

A term used for breeds that shed less allergen into the environment, usually because they shed less fur. No dog or cat breed is fully allergen-free: a cat’s main allergen comes from saliva and skin, not only fur, and a very sensitive person can react to any breed.

Standard definition by American Kennel Club · Hypoallergenic

Life cycle

The sequence of stages an organism passes through from birth to death — for an animal, young, adult and senior; for a plant, germination, growth, flowering and, in annuals, death after setting seed.

Life cycle

Toxicity

A plant’s or substance’s capacity to harm an organism, which varies with the species exposed, the amount ingested and the animal’s size. A plant "toxic to dogs" is not necessarily toxic to humans at the same dose, and the reverse holds too.

Standard definition by ASPCA — Animal Poison Control Center · Toxicity

Hemisphere

Half of the globe split by the equator. The seasons flip between the two: when it is winter in the northern hemisphere, it is summer in the southern one, which shifts the pruning, bloom and harvest calendar described on this page.

Hemisphere

Hardiness zone

A numbered band that ranks a region by the average coldest winter temperature it reaches, used to tell whether a plant survives there outdoors. The reference system is the US one (USDA), from zone 1, coldest, to 13, warmest.

Standard definition by USDA — Agricultural Research Service, Plant Hardiness Zone Map · Hardiness zone

Dormancy

The period when a plant slows its metabolism and stops visible growth, usually in autumn and winter, to survive cold or drought. Pruning, transplanting or fertilising during dormancy is usually less stressful for the plant than doing it in full growth.