The line graph presents information about the number of dog and cat owners in the UK between 1980 and 2015. The unit is measured in millions.
Overall, the number of dog owners fluctuated over the period, showing both increases and decreases, while the figure for cat owners had a steady growth. In addition, throughout the period, dog ownership remained more popular. However, cat ownership overtook it and became the most popular by 2015.
To begin with dog keepers, the number of people who owned dogs fluctuated between 15 million and 21 million starting from 1980 and ending in 1995. In 1990, the number of dog owners was around 12 million. A decade later, the figure showed a significant rise to 33 million. Between 2000 and 2015 , the number of people who kept dogs dropped slightly from 45 million to 39 million.
In terms of cat ownership, the number of people started off at 7 million. Afterwards, the figure showed a dramatic upward trend from 1990 to 2015, increasing by 40 million. Meanwhile, it stayed stable at 21 million between 1995 and 2000. At the end of the period the number of cat keepers reached its highest level.
In 1995, the number of cat and dog keepers began to converge and in that year both figures were at the same level of 21 million. The figures for dog and cat ownership began to diverge before cat owners became the most common in 2015.