The UK’s Most Pet-Friendly Country

New research puts Scotland first among UK countries for pet-friendly facilities and their relative accessibility to working pet owners. 

With many businesses returning to the office, workers with pets face a substantial adjustment in terms of time they’re now able to devote to their pets. Pets likewise have to get used to being left at home again, and some can even experience separation anxiety. It’s a concern shared by 73% of pet owners across the UK, and navigating a return to the office while caring for a pet is an increasingly common conundrum, with some 3.2 million people in the UK having acquired new pets during the pandemic. Current estimates suggest that 59% of UK households include one or more pets. 

Analysing data across a range of criteria, new research by Revolent has found that Scotland ranks best for working people with pets by a significant margin. Categories included pet-friendly offices and co-working spaces, alongside practical essentials like vets and pet supply stores. This data was then considered against population density to assess competition and relative accessibility by region. With 696,000 UK households either wanting or planning to relocate as of April 2022, this new research could help pet parents figure out their long-term plans. 

*A lower number represents better access to facilities, weighed up against population density. 

The study also reveals that, although England has the most pet-friendly facilities across numerous categories, its population density means higher competition to access those spaces. In this context, facilities in Scotland, while fewer overall, are much more accessible to working people with pets. 

President of Revolent, Nabila Salem, commented that “increasingly, people are considering work and life in much more holistic terms where they’re aiming for a better, healthier integration of the two. For pet parents, it’s vital to be able to access pet care services whenever needed. But beyond this, people may also be looking for places to live and work where their pets can be more present in the day-to-day  life”. 

Methodology 

This study used research data to identify the top countries within the United Kingdom to balance work and life with your pets. The criteria included pet-friendly offices and co-working spaces, places to eat out with your pet, take them for exercise, pet supply stores and vets, as well as residential spaces that allow pets. 

The data collected came from a number of free and public sources of information. Data relating to jobs with “pet-friendly” and “dog-friendly” offices was collected from www.indeed.co.uk using a data scraper. Data relating to the number of co-working spaces was collected from www.liquidspace.co.uk. The number of pet-friendly residential spaces was sourced from www.zoopla.co.uk. The number of pet-friendly hotels was gathered using Google Hotel Search. 

Data for the following categories came from www.dogfriendly.co.uk 

• pet-friendly cafés 
• pet-friendlily beaches 
• pet supply stores 
• veterinary practices 

Once the data had been collected, the result from each category was then compared against the population of each country to determine the average number of people to every pet-friendly facility. This yielded an overall ranking for how much competition there might be for access to these facilities. The data was also analysed to determine which country of the UK performed best for each category based on the raw data collected. To calculate the overall pet-friendly score, the total average score for each country was divided by n (n=2909.19).