The Governing Council of Cat Fancy is the leading cat fancy organisation in the United Kingdom. The statistics based on the pedigrees delivered by the GCCf in the last ten years, confirm the steady interest in purebred cats.
The British Shorthair remains the number 1 breed in the UK, way in front of the Persian, which however remains the number one breed in the world. The number of British Shorthairs has been consistently increasing since 1992. If the trend remains the same for the next five years, chances are it will not only keep its leading place, but create a big gap with its followers.
On the other side, the Persian – which represented a third of the registered cats at the beginning of the 90’s – is constantly falling: from 9,589 registrations in 1995 to 5,463 in 2000 and 3,908 in 2003. The Persian is even behind the Siamese now. And if things don’t change, he could even be outnumbered in the following years by the Bengal or the Ragdoll, whose registrations have been multiplied by 4 in less than 10 years.
Still below 1,000 births a year, but also with a tremendous growth, is the Norwegian Forest Cat, which could also very soon overtake the Exotic Shorthair and make it to the Top 10.
Despite the dramatic drop of the Persians, the total number of registrations has been really steady in the last years. The peak was reached in 1996, with a total of 33,686 registrations, while the worse year was 2000, with only 28,481 pedigrees. The yearly average is around 30,000 pedigrees a year. This means that the estimated purebred cats population in the UK would be around 350,000.
This federation – founded in 1910 – can be compared to its canine equivalent, the Kennel Club. It deals with all feline matters in the UK (cat shows, rules, breed clubs, pedigrees, catteries, etc.)
The breeds recognised by the GCCF are divided as follows:
Persian: bicolor, cameo, chinchilla, colourpoint, exotic (short haired persian type), pewter, self, shaded, smoke, tabby, tortie tabby (classic), tortie, tortie and white.
Semi Longhair: Birman, Maine Coon, Norwegian Forest Cat, Ragdoll, Somali and Turkish Van.
British Shorthair: bicolor, color pointed, Manx, self, smoke, tabby, y compris tortie tabby (classic, mackerel, spotted), tipped, tortie, tortie and white.
Foreign: Abyssinian, Asian (including the Bombay and Burmilla), Tiffanie (Longhair Asian), Bengal, Cornish Rex, Devon Rex, Egyptian Mau, Korat, Ocicat, Russian, Singapura and Tonkinese.
Oriental: Angora (Longhaired Oriental), self (including Havana and foreign white, shaded, smoke, tabby, tortie tabby (classic, mackerel, spotted and ticked), tortie.
Burmese: self, tortie
Siamese: self-pointed, tabby-pointedincluding tortie tabby, tortie-pointed, Balinese (Longhair Siamese).
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