A recent study has revealed how many XL Bully dogs are in the UK and one London borough is home to the largest amount of the breed.

The American bully XL is said to have originated in the US in the late 1980s when American pit bull terriers and American Staffordshire terriers were crossed.

Often weighing more than nine stone (60kg) they are easily strong enough to overpower an adult and create serious harm.

In September 2023, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that XL Bully Dog would be banned to "keep people safe."

2023 saw several serious XL Bully attacks, an incident in October of that year saw a video go viral when the breed attacked a young girl and two men in Birmingham.

Since January 31, the government ban has been in place across England and Wales meaning it is now an offence to sell the breed, give them away, abandon the dog, breed an XL Bully dog or have an XL Bully in public without a lead and muzzle.

Now a study, carried out by The Spectator created using a freedom of information request to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, has shared where the 50,000 registered XL Bully dogs live across England and Wales.

Across the two nations, there was one postcode that ranked top, with the London borough of Croydon home to the most XL Bullies in England and Wales.

You can see the full data via The Spectator.

London borough home to the most XL Bullies in England

Croydon (CR0) ranked top out of 2,424 postcodes with 219 approved applications of XL Bullies in the region.

The data found that the following areas within the postcode of CR0 were the homes to the banned breed, those areas are:

  • Croydon
  • Addiscombe
  • Shirley
  • Addington 
  • New Addington
  • Forestdale
  • Waddon

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While many other regions across the UK had a high number of XL Bully dogs, Croydon was the only spot to be home to more than 200.

Second on the list was S5 in the north region of Sheffield home to 189 XL Bullies while a spot in Warrington was close behind with 182 of the breed.

If you own an XL Bully dog but it is not registered, you must contact your local police force as the time to register the breed through the government has now passed.