If you love your dog – as I do – the news that, in many parts of Britain, dogs are outnumbering children does not come as much of a surprise. Dogs provide companionship without (much) challenge, are invariably (and demonstrably) grateful for their care and you never have to worry about the amount of time they are spending on their phone. And, by comparison, a dog does not cost as much to raise into adulthood.  

In one out of three postcodes in England, there are now more dogs than children, according to research conducted by the Times newspaper, and while many of those areas tend to be rural and sparsely populated, the place with the highest discrepancy turned out to be Darlington, where dogs outnumber children by the scarcely believable margin of 68,000.  

This may be a statistical quirk, but the pattern is real, and exposes a demographic shift to which we should all pay attention. According to the Dogs’ Trust, almost a quarter of new puppy owners are between the ages of 25-34. This can be partly........

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