Seville has more dog births than child births

Data continues to reveal realities linked to new adoption habits, and Seville is no exception. Although in 2024 a total of 14,057 births were registered throughout the province of Seville, without an updated register which will be the one that the INE will publish at the end of the year for 2025, the number of dogs registered a year ago amounted to 15,038 in total, a larger and above all more resounding figure, given that it is almost a thousand dogs more than births, nothing less. Which shows the preference that many family units have today, without ignoring the figure of the cat as the second favorite pet of all Andalusians and also Sevillians.

As shown by statistics provided by the Official College of Veterinarians of Seville and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of the Government of Andalusia, there is an increasing tendency among Sevillians to have dogs as pets. They are still the kings of the house. The accumulated data offered by the regional entity shows the existence of 435,311 dogs today in the province, of which 10,080 species are potentially dangerous breeds (Pitt Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Rottweiler, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, Tosa Inu, Akita Inu and Doberman).

Births of

children of the province

in 2024 (latest data

available)

Growth in 2025

compared to the previous year

Total number of this type

of registered animals

Source: Official College of Veterinarians of Seville and Ministry of Agriculture,

Fisheries, water and rural development of the Junta de Andalucía

Graphic: A. Montes / ABC SEVILLA

Growth in 2025

compared to the previous year

(+15,038

in 2024 compared to 2023)

Total number of this type

of registered animals

Births of

children of the province

in 2024 (latest data

available)

Source: Official College of Veterinarians of Seville and

of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Development

Rural of the Junta de Andalucía

Graphic: A. Montes / ABC SEVILLA

On the feline side, cats occupy, with 74,098 cats in total throughout the province of Seville until December 2025, second place for animals in the data accumulated by Agriculture. They increased significantly with 17.55 percent, which translates to 11,955 registrations, very close to the dogs, whose percentage difference is 3.4 percent. These are still statistics in accordance with current legislation, that is to say each animal with its electronic chip, a regional requirement which began three years ago.

In Andalusia, it is obligatory for pets to wear it since the publication of Law 11/2003 of November 24 on the protection of animals, which, in its article 17.1, specifies: “Dogs and cats must be individually identified using a standardized electronic identification system, implemented by a veterinarian, within a maximum period of three months from their birth. » All information goes directly to the Andalusian Animal Identification Registry (RAIA) and the municipal registry. From now on, thousands of species of various races escape the proposed figures and, as they are not official, they leave the eye of this statistic.

The birth crisis in Seville, key

Although it is true that the province of Seville as a whole is home to 513,679 pets, a figure that represents 20.20 percent of those recorded in the entire autonomous community (2.52 million), according to updated data from December from the Central Registry of Pets of the Government of Andalusia (RAIA), the city has 689,423 inhabitants, in contrast between animals and humans, after a slight increase recent, as reflected in the municipal register.

This increase is not enough to beat Zaragoza, let alone Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, which explains the birth crisis that continues to be pronounced in Seville. While in 2019 there were more than 16,233 births, in 2022 the figures showed a drastic drop (14,604 births), a benchmark that is also expected to worsen this year. Then there is the vegetative balance, that is to say that in the account of births minus deaths, the balance was negative.

Seville is still, in this updated figure, the most populous city in Andalusia and the fifth in all of Spain, and the number of pets that RAIA detects in the homes of those who register their animals is not far off. The metropolitan area of ​​Seville, on the other hand, exceeds 1.2 million inhabitants, including neighboring municipalities like Dos Hermanas, Alcalá de Guadaíra and Mairena del Aljarafe, according to slightly older statistics. Everyone also sees their pets increasing in a trend that continues to be ascendant, and which continues to highlight the interest in creating family units, with each time more animal presence than human.

Malaga surpasses Seville in terms of pets; Huelva, online

Of the 513,679 pets registered in the province of Seville, 3,394 are ferrets, which usually occupy third place, and 869 are classified as other domestic animals. Before, birds were included, now freed from this problem. There are also so-called potentially dangerous dogs listed by the RAIA, with thousands of species distributed throughout the autonomous community. Malaga, with 17,196 dogs so designated, is the province with the most, followed by Seville.

The Central Pet Registry of the Andalusian Executive also lists which Andalusian province currently has the most dogs. It is the province of Malaga, mentioned above, which again wins the prize, with 436,486; Seville being the second, which follows very closely, with 435,311 copies; and Cadiz the third (300,211). Concerning the felines, the order is as follows: Málaga (112,592); Seville (74,098) and Cádiz (67,537).

Along the same lines, Huelva, with 166,361 pets, is the province with the fewest dogs, cats, ferrets and other animals willing to be tamed. Finally, Malaga is once again at the top of the ranking on the regional map (552,679) in a statistic in which the RAIA excludes animals over 15 years of age that have not been vaccinated against rabies in the last two years, according to current Andalusian regulations.