How long do cats live? Average cat lifespan, indoors and out

The average cat lifespan in the United Kingdom is 11.74 years from birth, according to a 2024 study from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), a UK veterinary school. In the same study, 1,662 of the 7,936 cats (21 percent) lived to 17 or older. This guide explains what the research measured, what changes how long a cat lives, where indoor life fits in, and how cat years compare with human years.

What is the average cat lifespan?

The RVC team worked with National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan. They used the vet records of 7,936 cats that died while under the care of UK vet clinics, and published the results in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery in 2024. The records came from VetCompass, an RVC research program that collects anonymous records from vet practices across the UK.

The study found a life expectancy at birth of 11.74 years. Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a newborn kitten in the group could expect to live. It counts the kittens and young cats that died early, and those early deaths lower the average.

Life expectancy also changes as a cat gets older. In the same study, a cat that had reached its 10th birthday had 5.46 more years to live, on average.

An earlier RVC study, published in 2015, looked at 4,009 cats from 90 vet practices in England. It found a median age at death of 14 years. The median is the middle value: half of the cats died younger than 14 and half died older. Deaths in that study peaked at two ages, year 1 and year 16. The 2024 authors suggest the earlier figure may be higher partly because most of the 90 clinics belonged to one vet group.

International Cat Care, a cat welfare charity, gives an average of 12 to 14 years and says some cats reach their late teens or early twenties.

What changes how long a cat lives

The 2024 RVC study found four traits linked to a longer or shorter life.

• Sex. Female cats had a life expectancy at birth of 12.51 years. Male cats had 11.18 years.
• Neutering. Among cats that lived past 9 months, neutered cats lived 1.07 years longer on average than cats that were not neutered. Cats that were not neutered had 4.29 times the odds of dying before age 3.
• Breed. Mixed-breed cats had a life expectancy at birth of 11.89 years. Pedigree cats had 10.41 years.
• Body weight. For each 100 grams a cat weighed above or below the usual adult weight for its breed and sex, its lifespan was 0.02 years shorter. The usual weight here is the median, the middle value for cats of the same breed and sex.

The study measured life expectancy at birth for 11 breeds or breed groups, and for mixed-breed cats:

Breed	Life expectancy at birth (years)	Cats in the study
Burmese	14.42	45
Birman	14.39	38
Mixed breed, plus cats with no breed recorded	11.89	7,117
Siamese	11.69	88
Persian	10.93	80
Ragdoll	10.31	69
Norwegian Forest Cat	9.95	15
Maine Coon	9.71	69
Russian Blue and other Russian cats	9.65	19
British Blue and British Longhair	9.58	194
Bengal	8.51	73
Sphynx	6.68	18

Some breeds had few cats in the study, so their figures are less certain. The Sphynx result came from only 18 cats.

These figures describe large groups of cats. They cannot predict how long one cat will live. If you have a question about your own cat's weight, health or neutering, ask your veterinarian.

Do indoor cats live longer?

International Cat Care gives no separate number of years for indoor cat lifespan. The charity says the main advantage of keeping a cat indoors is that it faces fewer physical risks, so it may live a longer life. Indoor-only cats are safer from fights with neighbouring cats, from infections passed between cats, and from cars and dogs.

In UK research, traffic was the most common cause of death in young cats. In the Bristol Cats study, run by the University of Bristol with the charity Cats Protection, road traffic accidents caused 45.6 percent of deaths in cats up to 8 years old. For kittens under 1 year, the share was 61.2 percent. The 2015 RVC study found a similar pattern: trauma caused 47.3 percent of deaths in cats under 5. Across all ages in that study, 60 percent of trauma deaths were road traffic accidents.

Indoor life has its own risks. International Cat Care says indoor-only cats are more likely to become overweight because they move less, and it names stress as the biggest issue for them. The Bristol Cats authors wrote that indoor-only living could increase lifespan, but that an indoor cat still needs chances to play, explore, climb and scratch. International Cat Care suggests shelves, cat climbing trees and time spent playing with your cat every day.

The charity says there is no right or wrong answer between indoor life and outdoor access. It depends on your cat's personality, its health and the space around your home.

Cat life stages and cat years

International Cat Care divides a cat's life into six stages. Its chart counts a cat's first two years as 24 human years and every year after that as 4 human years.

Life stage	Cat's age	Human age on the chart
Kitten	0 to 6 months	0 to 10 years
Junior	7 months to 2 years	12 to 24 years
Adult	3 to 6 years	28 to 40 years
Mature	7 to 10 years	44 to 56 years
Senior	11 to 14 years	60 to 72 years
Super Senior	15 years and over	76 years and over

By this chart, a 7-year-old cat is like a 44-year-old person. The charity says the risk of some diseases rises from age 7, and that cats at this stage may need their diet adjusted and more frequent health checks at the vet. It says senior cats are likely to be less active, and may need a litter tray with lower sides or a ramp up to a favourite sleeping spot.

How long can a cat live?

The oldest cat on record is Creme Puff, who lived for 38 years and 3 days, according to Guinness World Records. She was born on 3 August 1967 and died on 6 August 2005 in Austin, Texas.

Ages like that are rare. In the 2024 RVC study, 332 of the 7,936 cats (4.2 percent) lived to 20 or older, and the oldest mixed-breed cat in the study reached 26.69 years. The 2015 study recorded a highest age of 26.7 years.

A portrait for each stage of your cat's life

Your cat will look different as a 6-month-old kitten, a 5-year-old adult and a 15-year-old Super Senior. Photos taken at each life stage give you a record of how it looked at each age. Our guide on how to photograph your pet for a portrait explains how to get a clear photo of a cat, including the best times to try. A senior cat that rests more can be photographed where it likes to sleep.

Any of those photos can become a royal portrait. The gallery shows three cats already: a white and ginger cat as a Maharani, a grey cat as a Mughal emperor in a jewelled crown and pearls, and a ginger cat in a red and gold royal robe. You could keep one portrait from your cat's younger years and another from its senior years, and hang them side by side. For the history of cats in royal courts, read royal cats in history. If your cat has already died, the guide on how to memorialize a pet covers choosing a photo for a memorial portrait.