Watching cats leap into the air is pretty awe inspiring, especially when you consider how tiny the wee ones are by comparison to the clearance they get when they jump! Cats are biologically built to be quite skilled in this arena.
House cats do jump much higher than dogs, and can hands down jump incredible distances, even by comparison to humans. Especially when you factor in their tiny statures!
A cat’s ability to leap into the air and get such enormous clearance is most certainly something I’ve found myself envying our feline friends for in the past! But how high exactly can cats jump?
How High Can Cats Jump?
Cats can jump as high as five or six times their own body length.
Taking the statistics on the average house cat from Wikipedia:
Cats average about 23–25 cm (9–10 in) in height and 46 cm (18 in) in head/body length (males being larger than females), with tails averaging 30 cm (12 in) in length.
This means the average cat will be 46 cm / 18 inches in body length, and thus that:
The average cat can jump approximately 2.3 m (7.5′) to a whopping 2.76 m (9′)!!
That’s a lot of clearance!
And that’s just for the average cat! The taller the cat, the higher the cat can typically jump, and so get a pretty-long cat in the running and you’re well on your way to a cat easily clearing over 10 or 11 feet!
Putting This Into Perspective… How High Is That Really?
The world’s record for men’s high jump was set in 1993. Back then, Javier Sotomayor of Spain set the record – 2.45 m / 8′ .5″!
That’s incredibly high! And yet still it’s just barely higher than your average house cat can jump – let alone the relatively tall domestic cats.
So if you thought cats could jump quite high by comparison to the average human, you’re not only right about that, but you might be surprised to learn that your average domestic cat can jump really high even by comparison to the average men’s high jump Olympic athlete!
Crazy level of skill and absolutely amazing biology, if you ask me!
How Far Could We Jump If Humans Had Feline Jumping Skills?
I know this is ridiculous because we really couldn’t have a cat’s jumping abilities with our biology as it is, but I thought it’d be interesting to think about for a second anyway.
The average height of a man living in the United States of America is 5′ 10″, so around 178 cm.
What if the average man could jump as far as a cat?
He could jump between 8.9 meters / 29′ 2″ and 10.68 meters / 35′ 1″!!
That’s absolutely insane!
Have You Ever Been In Awe of a Cat’s Jumping Ability?
Have you ever been in awe of how high cats can jump?
Ever thought about how cats stack up to humans?
What do you think about the stats?
And have you, like me, ever thought about how cool it would be to be able to jump as far as a cat could (i.e. 5 or 6 times your body height)?
I think it’d be such an incredible thing to experience, even just once…!
My dog has fleas that can jump many more times their length than any cat.
Cats put humans to shame paws down athletically. A domestic cat also runs faster than any human too that includes Bolt. Unlike big cats they don’t seem to suffer from lack of stamina either, if you factor in the small size it’s incredible how a cat can run 30mph when only 2foot long! Interestingly though a cheetah may be over twice as fast but they are considerably bigger so relative terms the humble housecat is superior to the big cats, same with jumping. Tigers can leap vertically 5metres, 16-17feet maybe more I’m sure they can but tigers are the biggest cat and MUCH larger than a hous cat, yet they only leap 2-3x as high as something that is a fifth of their length and 1-2% of their weight… Diminishing returns holds true for increased size!
To add, foxes can jump impressively like cats too. Foxes are definitely many ways more felid than hound.
Thanks, Elise. I enjoyed this a lot!
Not only did you answer the initial question of how high your average cat can jump, but you
also answered each and every related question that I thought of while reading through your article.
I didn’t have to search elsewhere for more knowledge at all. You served it all up, and I like that kind
of efficiency and foresight.
Well done! 🙂
i love cats they are so cute and they are so cool and my cat love “me” she don”t like me she is mad at me
Normal cats can jump about 5 feet vertically the most. Trained cats of the active breed using a gradually raised teaser however, can potentially jump above 7 feet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZsAUMBMSKg.
Crazyyyy. Such a cool video – thanks for sharing! 🙂
Thanks for your input. I find 5 feet much more believable for my house cat. I suppose if they’re outdoor cats and get a lot of exercise and jumping muscles built up, it could be 7 feet. But I’m hoping mine will be more in the 4-5 foot range! Julie
Might put him in for world record..I believe he can do it
Honestly, he might!
Smudge my melanstic black bengal jump,s my over 6ft fridge no problem
Wow, mad impressive!
Beneath that rather fur are muscular haunches that thrust her wherever she sees fit. A cat could leap roughly 5 times her elevation, so most healthy felines have around a 5-foot jumping range, vertical or horizontal. And also those claws aid her latch on, for instance, she’s not sure-footed in her touchdown.
yes, I’m always in awe of my cat’s ability:) especially his ability to be naughty and to get away with it because of his cuteness;)
Oh my goodness yes!
There’s places we’ve jumped on to that amazed the mom. Like from the table to the top of the china cabinet…probably about 4 feet. We told her that was nothing.
You have to understand how impressive it is for us humans to watch! You guys are very talented 😉