The Cat Fanciers' Association, founded in the United States in 1906, is the largest American registry of pedigree cats and recognises 45 breeds.
Several of them are not accepted in Britain, and others are known there by different names: an American Colorpoint Shorthair is a British Siamese, and a European Burmese is simply a Burmese.
Pedigree cats are registered differently on each side of the Atlantic. North America has its own registries, recognises several breeds that are not accepted in Britain, and uses different names for some that are. Much of what is written about cat breeds in English follows the American lists, which is a common source of confusion for British and European readers.
The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) was founded in the United States in 1906 and describes itself as the world's largest registry of pedigree cats. It is a non-profit body with its headquarters in Alliance, Ohio. It keeps the pedigree records, writes the breed standards, licenses shows and trains the judges for them, and its affiliated clubs now run shows in Asia and Europe as well as North America.
The second major American registry is The International Cat Association (TICA), founded in 1979, which recognises more breeds, including newer and experimental ones. Canada has its own Canadian Cat Association.
The CFA recognises 45 breeds, 42 of them with full championship status. They include:
The remaining CFA breeds are the Bengal and the Burmilla, and three accepted in its non-competitive class: the Khao Manee, the Lykoi and the Toybob.
The American Bobtail, American Shorthair, American Wirehair, Havana Brown, Japanese Bobtail, Scottish Fold and Turkish Angora are not recognised by the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy. The Bombay is registered in Britain only as part of the Asian group. The Scottish Fold is excluded on welfare grounds.
The reverse also applies: the British registry recognises breeds that the CFA does not, among them the Asian, the Snowshoe, the Thai and the Suffolk.
The CFA's list of its most registered breeds for 2023 was headed by the Ragdoll, followed by the Maine Coon, Persian, Exotic, Devon Rex, British Shorthair, Abyssinian, Scottish Fold, Siberian and Sphynx. In Britain the same year the leading breeds were the British Shorthair, Ragdoll, Maine Coon, Siamese and Burmese. Advice on choosing between them is given under choosing a cat breed.