average lifespan for a cat
Today cats live longer than ever. Just 20 years ago the life expectancy of a cat was four to six years; today they live 15 years or more. Life expectancy in cats depends on many things, but the most important factor is whether he is an indoor-only cat or an outdoor cat.
These time spans compared favourably to the average lifespan of 7.1 years for pet cats reported in a 1984 study, and to the finding that only 42% of the pet cat population in the U.S. is more than 5 years old.eral cats in managed colonies can live long lives. A number of cats in managed colonies in the U.K. died of old age. In the U.S., the last cat in a managed colony in Washington, D.C. died at age 17, and Zorro, the last cat of a colony at the Merrimack River in Newburyport, Massachusetts, died in 2009 at age 16.