PupCensus

Data

Check the numbers yourself

Every figure on this site comes from these three files. They are free to download, and free to use if you carry the attribution the source license requires. Retrieved August 21, 2026.

names.csv3,593 names Every name carried by at least 10 licensed dogs, with its rank, its rate per 10,000, how it has changed since 2008–12, its most common breed and the neighborhood where it is strongest. breeds.csv123 breeds Every breed with at least 150 licensed dogs, its most common name, and any name excluded from that figure for being the breed word itself. neighborhoods.csv82 neighborhoods Every ZIP code with at least 1,500 licensed dogs, its most common name, and the name most distinctive to it relative to the city as a whole. README.txtAttribution and caveats What the columns mean, what the numbers cannot tell you, and the attribution the license requires you to carry if you republish any of it.

What is not here

There is no row-level file. The cleaned records are one small decision away from being a list of individual animals and their neighborhoods, and the purpose of publishing is to let you check the arithmetic, not to hand over the dataset. Everything above is an aggregate.

The original records are public and anyone can start from them: NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, via NYC Open Data publishes them under NYC Administrative Code 23-502(d). What is added here is the cleaning, the deduplication of renewals into individual animals, and the thresholds described on the method page.

The caveat that travels with every number

Around 80% of New York City dogs are unlicensed, and licensing is not spread evenly across the city. Every figure describes licensed dogs. Comparisons between neighborhoods carry that with them, and any honest use of this data should say so too.