# How many Goldens are there in the U.S.?



## DanaRuns (Sep 29, 2012)

Someone asked me how many Golden Retrievers there are in America. It came up in a discussion of the Top 20 GRs, and this person wanted to know out of how many. And not just how many show dogs, but how many Goldens in the whole country.

I have no idea. I'm not sure it's knowable. But I thought I'd ask.

Thoughts?


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Likely impossible to calculate. As of 2011, there were an estimated 78.2 million owned dogs (a majority are likely mutts) in the US. In 2006, the AKC registered 42,962 Goldens. Based on that, I would assume there are somewhere between 500,000 - 750,000 living registered Goldens in the US. What percentage of Goldens are registered with the AKC?


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

The best you could do is an educated guess. Approximately 50,000 registered per year, times the average life span. That of course would not include the goldens who were never registered by their owners. So you would have to factor those into your estimate as well.


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

By the way, here's where I got the data from. I was surprised the number of Golden registrations was as low as it is. Three times as many Labs were registered in 2006.

List of most popular dog breeds - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## DanaRuns (Sep 29, 2012)

My guess is that unregistered Goldens are by far the majority. Even in Gibbs' litter -- which is a litter by a reputable breeder who encourages registration -- none of the owners of the pet puppies have registered their dogs, only the show homes (me and the breeder) have. And this breeder really encourages registration and makes it easy. How many puppies from back yard breeders, large kennels, puppy mills, and "Hey, we both have Goldens, let's breed them," go unregistered. And obviously, the puppies from every unregistered Golden in the country can't be registered, so that's even more.

I think the registered ones would be a small percentage, but it's just a guess.


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## Tuco (Jan 3, 2013)

I would guess registered ones to be a tiny percentage, maybe even less than 1%, it's very hard to make an accurate estimate


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

DanaRuns said:


> My guess is that unregistered Goldens are by far the majority. Even in Gibbs' litter -- which is a litter by a reputable breeder who encourages registration -- none of the owners of the pet puppies have registered their dogs, only the show homes (me and the breeder) have. And this breeder really encourages registration and makes it easy. How many puppies from back yard breeders, large kennels, puppy mills, and "Hey, we both have Goldens, let's breed them," go unregistered. And obviously, the puppies from every unregistered Golden in the country can't be registered, so that's even more.
> 
> I think the registered ones would be a small percentage, but it's just a guess.


Isn't it typically the breeder's responsibility to register the pups before they go to their new homes?


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Tuco said:


> I would guess registered ones to be a tiny percentage, maybe even less than 1%, it's very hard to make an accurate estimate
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


It has to be higher than that, otherwise there would be approx 50 million purebred Goldens in the US out of 78 million owned dogs.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

My SWAG is 1.25 - 1.5 million.


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## Selli-Belle (Jan 28, 2009)

Interesting question! Maybe one of the vets on the list can calculate what percentage of Goldens are in their practice and go from there.


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