How does breed popularity differ from country to country

Are Lab's the most popular breed in most countries ???

They certainly are here! Lab, GR, GSD are the top 3

no in Italy German shepherd is first, english setter - 2nd, retriever 3rd, labs are in 4th place

I had poms top of the list i seen for Italy ,,,,
Maybe its out of date ....

Just from my observations, living in the French countryside, I would say that labs are not in the top 10 here. I do not see many at all.

I would say that I see mostly wire-haired fox terriers (and quite a lot of smooth too), JRTs, brittany spaniels, yorkshire terriers, malinois belgian shepards, bichons and a fairly large number of English setters!

I know in Canada Labradors are the most numerous purebred registered dog. That doesn't say a lot though as there are a ton of unregistered here - 90% are unregistered.

What I see a ton of in Alberta - rural - are Collie mixes (mostly Border Collie by type) and often enough now those are Border Collie/Lab mixes. As well we have a lot of Husky types - (reserve dogs too are included in that). For small dogs the largest portion used to be Sheltie mixes (little herders) and Feist mixes (farm terriers), but for the last 15 years or so there has been a huge infusion of Shih Tzu mixes - Shih Tzu x Bichon (often multigenerational) being a very popular mix here.

As for the registered dogs, these are the top 10 breeds from 2011 in Canada - no numbers given.

1. Retriever (Labrador)
2. German Shepherd Dog
3. Retriever (Golden)
4. Poodle
5. Shetland Sheepdog
6.Yorkshire Terrier
7. Bernese Mountain Dog
8. Boxer
9. Bulldog
10. Schnauzer (miniature)

In 2008 these numbers were given which really show how numerous the top three are in comparison to the rest.

1. Labrador Retriever --- 8,710
2. Golden Retriever --- 5,386
3. German Shepherd Dog --- 4,429
4. Poodle --- 2,618
5. Shetland Sheepdog --- 2,282
6. Yorkshire Terrier --- 2,209
7. Boxer --- 1,540
8. Miniature Schnauzer --- 1,363
9. Bernese Mountain Dog --- 1,254
10. Shih Tzu --- 1,245

Ruby

The Bmd in the top ten suprises me for some reason ..

Americans are usually surprised that Shelties are up there too.

Many here favor the more densely coated breeds - for obvious reasons (or at least used to). As we have not a lot of water on the prairies the Spaniel types are rather few and far between as compared to many places as well.

Are Bernese Mountain Dogs quite a bit less popular elsewhere?

Ruby

Here its a bit like your way Dragonfly although Golden's seem to be popular last year, so I know quite a few 1 and a half year old golden's, the Foxes and the JRT are very popular as are the Breton spaniel. But there isnt really a bread that really stands out as most popular.

really? have to say, that I've hardly ever seen poms around, judging by breeds I see when moving around or tourist season were I live, german shepherds are definately one of the breeds seen most, as are english setters,
just looked at another site tho for 2011 which puts setters as the top, followed by gsd, then maremma's, but still no mention of poms