A rise in dog ownership worldwide reflects a growing desire to nurture without the demands of raising children, researchers have suggested.

As most of the world now experiences “sub-replacement fertility”, dog ownership has gained in popularity and, in most European countries, a quarter to half of households own at least one dog.

While dogs have long been considered family members, the researchers found that “an increasing number of owners have begun to regard their dogs as their children.”

They added that “some owners might see their dog as a child surrogate to spoil, others actively choose to have dogs and not children”. Owning a dog could “offer an opportunity to fulfil a nurturing drive similar to parenting, but with fewer demands than raising biological offspring”, the researchers said.

The study, published in the journal European Psychologist, asked: “Given the two trends of more dogs being viewed as family members and a decline in the number of children, an important ­question arises: are people choosing dogs as a substitute for children?”