Guinea Pig Ownership Statistics: How Many People Have Guinea Pigs?

Our humans think we're adorable and awesome, and you probably do, too, if you're reading our blog. But have you ever wondered how many people there are in the world that are smart enough to own a guinea pig? Unfortunately, a lot of the surveys out there lump us together with other "small mammals" or "other pets," but here's what we know about how popular guinea pigs are:

• In the United States in 2007, approximately 847,000 households owned guinea pigs, and there was an estimated population of 1,362,000 total guinea pigs.
• In Canada in 2008, 1% of homes owned lizards, horses, snakes, frogs, turtles, ferrets, gerbils or guinea pigs. 
• In Australia in 2009, "there were 1.06 million other pets, including pleasure horses, rabbits, guinea pigs, reptiles and other small mammals." 
• In the U.K. in 2012, there are estimated to be 1,000,000 guinea pigs.
• Throughout Europe, it was estimated in 2010 that there were 30,644,000 small mammals owned as pets. By country, this breaks down as follows:
• Austria - 500,000
• Belgium - 1,300,000
• Czech Republic -160,000
• Denmark - 390,000
• Finland - 130,000
• France - 3,011,000
• Germany - 5,300,000
• Greece - 400,000
• Hungary - 370,000
• Ireland - 150,000
• Italy - 2,500,000
• Netherlands - 1,700,000
• Norway - 150,000
• Poland - 800,000
• Portugal - 200,000
• Romania - 88,000
• Russia - 5,300,000
• Slovakia - 140,000
• Slovenia - 125,000
• Spain - 3,850,000
• Sweden - 500,000
• Switzerland - 580,000

Also, although we haven't been able to find any statistics from these countries, a small but notable amount of traffic to this blog comes from Brazil, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, and South Africa. If you know of any guinea pig statistics we missed, please let us know!

Tell those millions of guinea pigs out there to get their own food! They can't have ours!