Breed popularity movement study
Registration ranks only — AKC for dogs, CFA for cats. We assemble multi-year arcs already
traced in breed-rankings.mjs / pipeline/BREED_DATA_CITATIONS.md. This
is not a recommendation of which breed to buy.
Cite this: https://petagehq.com/breed-popularity-movement-study/ · retrieved 2026-08-01
Sources: AKC 2025 · AKC 2022 press (31-year Lab streak) · AKC 2025 press (fourth year Frenchie #1) · CFA 2024 · all sources
Dogs: French Bulldog rise; Labrador’s 31-year #1 ends
AKC registration statistics place the French Bulldog at rank #14 in 2012, #2 in 2021, then #1 from 2022 through 2025 (4 consecutive years in this series). The Labrador Retriever’s #1 run ended in 2022 after 31 years (AKC press); Labs sit at #2 for 4 years in the baked series (2022–2025).
AKC top 5 — registration year 2025
| Rank | Breed |
|---|---|
| 1 | French Bulldog |
| 2 | Labrador Retriever |
| 3 | Golden Retriever |
| 4 | German Shepherd Dog |
| 5 | Dachshund |
Full top 15 on dog breed popularity.
Cats: 2024 Maine Coon / Ragdoll flip
CFA registration years 2022–2023: Ragdoll #1, Maine Coon Cat #2. Registration year 2024: Maine Coon Cat #1, Ragdoll #2 (CFA publishes top 10 depth for 2024).
CFA 2024 #1 is Maine Coon Cat. Full table: cat breed popularity.
Methodology
- What we counted: published AKC/CFA registration ranks for named calendar/registration years; selected-year series already cited in BREED_DATA_CITATIONS.md.
- How: bake ranks into
breed-rankings.mjswith source URLs; charts are static inline SVG (no external requests). - Window: AKC Frenchie/Lab series years present in the bake (2012, 2019–2025); CFA Ragdoll/Maine series 2022–2024.
- Limits: Registration popularity ≠ suitability. CFA 2024 depth is top 10 only as published. We do not invent ranks for years without a cited source.