According to a 2017 survey, Millennial males in the United States were more likely to be cat and/or dog owners than their female counterparts. Some ** percent of male Millennial survey respondents stated that they owned a cat and ** percent owned a dog. In comparison, ** and ** percent of female respondents were cat and/or dog owners, respectively.

Pet ownership rates in the United States

In 2019, ** percent of all households in the United States owned a pet . This is over a *** percent increase from 1988. Almost ** percent of surveyed American pet-owning households had a dog in 2017 , making it the most popular type of pet to own in the United States. Cats and freshwater fish were the second and third most popular type of pet, with a ** and ** percent share of the vote respectively.

Number of pets owned

Freshwater fish were the most kept pet in the United States in 2017/18 in terms of volume. In total, Americans were estimated to own approximately ***** million of the aquatic animals in that year. This large volume is no surprise when considering their small size and minor cost increases when owning more than one fish as a pet. Cats and dogs were the second and third most owned pets, with around **** and **** million living in U.S. households respectively.

This driver analyzes the number of domesticated pets and companion animals owned in the US. Pets, defined in this driver as either cats or dogs, provide personal company or protection but are not considered working animals or livestock. The American Pet Products Association (APPA) conducts a biennial National Pet Owners Survey, and the data used in the survey regarding cat and dog ownership is collected and discussed here.

According to a 2024 survey, dogs were the most commonly owned pet in UK households. The share of households reporting dog ownership stood at 36 percent. The second most common house pet among UK households were cats, with around 26 percent of respondents stating their ownership. Pet ownership in the UK In the past year, pet ownership levels in the UK decreased by five percent when compared to 2022. This decrease could be explained by the change in owner's routines since pandemic restrictions have lifted. The share of UK households owning a dog or cat also decreased in comparison to previous years. Happiness, companionship, and man’s best friend A 2020 survey asked dog owners to state their reasons for owning a dog and all linked their ownership to either improving their happiness and/or providing companionship. Happiness was the most common response, with 51 percent stating ‘because they make me happy’. Whereas 47 percent stated their dogs provided ‘love/affection’ and 35 percent stated their dogs provided ‘companionship’. It seems the old saying “man’s best friend” still holds true to this day.

Provide the website for consulting the statistics table of the 102nd National Dog and Cat Population Survey.

This statistic shows the results of a survey on buying Christmas gifts for dogs and cats in Sweden in 2015. During the survey period, 15.6 percent of the respondents stated that they never buy gifts for their dog or cat for Christmas.

In March 2020, Americans began experiencing numerous lifestyle changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some reports have suggested that pet acquisition and ownership increased during this period, and some have suggested shelters and rescues will be overwhelmed once pandemic-related restrictions are lifted and lifestyles shift yet again. In May 2021, the ASPCA hired the global market research company Ipsos to conduct a general population survey that would provide a more comprehensive picture of pet ownership and acquisition during the pandemic. Although pet owners care for a number of species, the term pet owner in this study specifically refers to those who had dogs and/or cats. One goal of the survey was to determine whether data from a sample of adults residing in the United States would corroborate findings from national shelter databases indicating that animals were not being surrendered to shelters in large numbers. Furthermore, this survey gauged individuals' concerns related to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, and analyses examined factors associated with pet owners indicating they were considering rehoming an animal within the next 3 months. The data showed that pet ownership did not increase during the pandemic and that pets may have been rehomed in greater numbers than occurs during more stable times. Importantly, rehomed animals were placed with friends, family members, and neighbors more frequently than they were relinquished to animal shelters and rescues. Findings associated with those who rehomed an animal during the pandemic, or were considering rehoming, suggest that animal welfare organizations have opportunities to increase pet retention by providing resources regarding pet-friendly housing and affordable veterinary options and by helping pet owners strategize how to incorporate their animals into their post-pandemic lifestyles.

According to the results of a survey carried out in Brazil in 2023, ** percent of dog owners saw their pet as a family member, while ** percent saw it as just a pet. Meanwhile, ** percent of cat owners considered their pet like a family member, in contrast to ** percent who saw it as just a pet.

In 2024, according to a nationwide survey, there were estimated to be around 8.9 million cats in Canadian households. In the same year, there were approximately 8.3 million pet dogs in the country. Annual pet care costs in Canada Taking care of a pet cat cost Canadian pet owners an average of 2,542 Canadian dollars per cat in 2021. Annual expenses, such as professional dental care, food and, pet health insurance, were among the most expensive for this type of pet. The estimated yearly cost of caring for pet canines was over 1,000 Canadian dollars higher than feline-related expenses in 2022. On average, dog food and health insurance for dogs were significantly more expensive than cat food and insurance. Pet stores in Canada Ontario, Canada's largest province by population, was home to over 770 pet and pet supplies stores in 2021. Quebec, which is the largest province by area, had roughly 500 stores. In the same year, there was a total of less than ten pet stores in Yukon and the Northwest Territories, both of which are large, but sparsely populated federal territories of Canada.

The present dataset is based on a questionnaire which is also part of this package. The enclose questionnaire includes identifiable and relevant variables names (yellow highlighted).

Participants were recruited by Norstat, a European-based survey company, with the aim of gaining a representative sample of Austrian, Danish and UK citizens, including pet owners. The survey company administers and hosts online panels comprising citizens from many European countries. We aimed for a sample that is representative in terms of age, gender, and region. Therefore, a stratified sampling principle was set up where individuals within each stratum were randomly invited to participate. The invitations were issued through e-mail that contained a link to the online questionnaire. Data was collected from 11-25^th of March 2022 in Austria, from 11-24^th of March 2022 in Denmark and from 8-23^rd of March 2022 in the UK. The invitation provided information about the background of the study, the participating universities, ethical approval, estimated time for questionnaire completion and further, participants were informed that the completion of the questionnaire was voluntary and anonymous, and that they could exit the survey at any point. Before participants were directed to the survey, they ensured informed consent by confirming that they are over 17 years old, and consent to participate in this survey.

Besides the questionnaire the dataset includes a csv and an Excel file consisting of the data that is used in the ms. and an rtf and a pdf file with data variable names/labels, and value labels.

Context:

This dataset contains survey responses to a survey that people could complete when they signed up for the 5-Day Data Challenge.

On December 12, 2017 survey responses for the second 5-Day Data Challenge were added. For this version of the challenge, participants could sign up for either an intro version or a more in-depth regression challenge.

Content:

The optional survey included four multiple-choice questions:

1. Have you ever taken a course in statistics?

• Yep
• Yes, but I've forgotten everything
• Nope

1. Do you have any previous experience with programming?

• Nope
• I have a little bit of experience
• I have quite a bit of experience
• I have a whole lot of experience

1. What's your interest in data science?

• Just curious
• It will help me in my current job
• I want to get a job where I use data science
• Other

1. Just for fun, do you prefer dogs or cat?

• Dogs 🐶
• Cats 🐱
• Both 🐱🐶
• Neither 🙅

In order to protect privacy, the data has been shuffled (so there’s no temporal order to the responses) and a random 2% of the data has been removed (so even if you know that someone completed the survey, you cannot be sure that their responses are included in this dataset). In addition, all incomplete responses have been removed, and any text entered in the “other” free response field has been replaced with the text “other”.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to everyone who completed the survey! :)

Inspiration:

• Is there a relationship between how much programming experience someone has and why they’re interested in data science?
• Are more experienced programmers more likely to have taken statistics?
• Do people tend to prefer dogs, cats, both or neither? Is there a relationship between what people prefer and why they’re interested in data science?

Surveyed dog owners in the United States stated that they spent, on average, 442 U.S. dollars on pet food per year in 2020. In comparison, cat-owning respondents claimed to spend an average of 329 U.S. dollars on pet food on an annual basis.

Pet ownership in the United States In 2019/20, dogs and cats were the most popular American household pets. There were approximately 63.4 million dog-owning households and 42.7 million cat-owning households in the United States. Other pets living in U.S. households included freshwater fish, saltwater fish, birds, reptiles, and horses. Due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and the increased time spent at home, many Americans reported acquiring new pets. In a recent survey carried out in December 2020, 10 percent of respondents in the United States reported acquiring a new pet as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pet expenditures in the United States As Americans increasingly acquired more and more pets over the years, pet industry expenditure in the United States increased at an impressive rate, growing by over 500 percent between 1994 and 2020. Pet food and treats captured the biggest share of pet industry sales, followed by veterinary services and related products. In terms of pet food, the dry dog food segment generated the highest amount of sales, with around 5.3 billion U.S. dollars generated in 2020.

Modern dog and cat owners increasingly use internet resources to obtain information on pet health issues. While access to online information can improve owners’ knowledge of patient care and inform conversations with their veterinarian during consultations, there is also a risk that owners will misinterpret online information or gain a false impression of current standards in veterinary medicine. This in turn can cause problems or tensions, for example if the owner delays consulting their veterinarian about necessary treatment, or questions the veterinarian’s medical advice. Based on an online questionnaire aimed at dog and cat owners in Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom (N = 2117) we investigated the use of internet resources to find veterinary medical information, the type of internet resources that were used, and whether owner beliefs explain how often they used the internet to find medical information about their pet. Approximately one in three owners reported that they never used internet resources prior to (31.7%) or after (37.0%) a consultation with their veterinarian. However, when owners do make use of the internet, our results show that they were more likely to use it before than after the consultation. The most common internet resources used by owners were practice websites (35.0%), veterinary association websites (24.0%), or ‘other’ websites providing veterinary information (55.2%). Owners who believe that the use of internet resources enables them to have a more informed discussion with their veterinarians more often use internet resources prior to a consultation, whereas owners who believed that internet resources help them to make the right decision for their animal more often use internet resources after a consultation. The results suggest that veterinarians should actively ask pet owners if they use internet resources, and what resources they use, in order to facilitate open discussion about information obtained from the internet. Given that more than a third of pet owners use practice websites, the findings also suggest that veterinarians should actively curate their own websites where they can post information that they consider accurate and trustworthy.

IntroductionAlthough multiple studies have explored behavioral changes in pets during the strict lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic between May and July 2020, this longitudinal study uniquely investigated the phases beyond strict lockdown. The primary objective of this research was to evaluate the pandemic’s impact on pet behavior.MethodsTo achieve this goal, we conducted an online survey, completed by pet owners residing in the United States between June 2020 (including retrospective data for February and April 2020) and December 2021. The study encompassed four distinct pandemic phases: Pre-pandemic (data collected retrospectively), Strict lockdown, Prolonged lockdown, and Re-opening.Results and discussionThe data collected from surveys completed by 3,278 pet owners across one to six time points revealed declining trends in all investigated behavior problems of both dogs and cats. Concurrently, human-animal interaction activities also showed variations across different COVID-19 phases. The association between human-animal interactions and the occurrence of behavior problems underscored the importance of not only exercise quantity but also adherence to consistent schedules, particularly for dogs, in mitigating behavior problems. Interestingly, among cats, sleeping outside the bedroom was associated with a reduced occurrence of aggression, anxiety, fear, and physiological behavior changes. However, sleep location displayed limited or no association with behavior problems in dogs. In summary, this study highlights the importance of tailoring interventions to the unique needs of each species through human-animal interactions to mitigate the occurrence of behavioral problems and enhance human-animal relationships.

**** were the most popular pets in Japan as revealed in a survey panel by Rakuten Insight conducted between April and May 2025. The survey on pet ownership showed that dogs and cats were the most common animal companions kept in Japan, which is reflected in the dominance of dogs and cat goods within the domestic pet supplies market. Cats and dogs in Japan Even though dogs were popular for their approachability and loyalty among Japanese people, cats are closing in on the popularity of canines. As Japan is struggling to contain the number of strays in municipalities, in particular felines, picking up a lost or stray cat is a frequent reason to become a new owner. In contrast, dogs and other mammals like rodents are mostly mediated through retail channels like pet stores or breeders, requiring higher costs in the adoption process. Pet businesses The Japanese pet market offers owners a variety of establishments and pet stores to indulge their animal companions with services and goods, including wellness programs, accessories, and luxury snacks. While general food and **************** make up the top items of annual expenses spent on pet dogs, beauty expenses covering shampoo, cutting, and trimming are coming in third. Boosted by the "kawaii" (cuteness) culture in Japan, dog barbers and fashion goods for pets are not an uncommon sight in the country.

Supplemental materials for the publication "Plant-based (vegan) diets for pets: A survey of pet owner attitudes and feeding practices" (see Related Publications) including survey questionnaire items and data key for survey analysis.

ABSTRACT Anecdotal reports suggest that the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (COVID-19) has increased overweight and obesity prevalence in dogs and cats. The present report aimed to perform a retrospective overweight/obesity survey on 1,001 consecutive cases attended in the Veterinary Clinics Hospital from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul during its reopening to the public after months closed due to the pandemic. The overall overweight or obesity observed prevalence was 36.63%; being the frequency in cats slightly greater (38.37%) than compared to dogs (35.76%). No local increase in these frequencies was detected. Neutering (dogs and cats), age greater than 10 years (dogs), and male gender (cats) were factors associated with overweight/obesity. Bodyweight was not registered in about 30% of the medical records, while the body condition score was not registered in about 50% of the cases. These flaws were more often observed in feline medical records and efforts to improve these data records are warranted.

An estimated ** million households in the United States owned at least one dog according to a 2024/25 pet owners survey, making them the most widely owned type of pet across the U.S. at this time. Cats and freshwater fish ranked in second and third places, with around ** million and ** million households owning such pets, respectively. Freshwater vs. salt water fish Freshwater fish spend most or all their lives in fresh water. Fresh water’s main difference to salt water is the level of salinity. Freshwater fish have a range of physiological adaptations to enable them to live in such conditions. As the statistic makes clear, Americans keep a large number of freshwater aquatic species at home as pets. American pet owners In 2023, around ** percent of all households in the United States owned a pet. This is a decrease from 2020, but still around a ** percent increase from 1988. It is no surprise that as more and more households own pets, pet industry expenditure has also witnessed steady growth. Expenditure reached over *** billion U.S. dollars in 2022, almost a sixfold increase from 1998. The majority of pet product sales are still made in brick-and-mortar stores, despite the rise and evolution of e-commerce in the United States.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can infect many animals, including pets such as dogs and cats. Many studies have documented infection in companion animals by bio-molecular and serological methods. However, only a few have compared seroprevalence in cats and dogs from the general population, and these studies were limited by small sample sizes and collections over short periods. Our goal was to obtain a more accurate evaluation of seroprevalence in companion animals in France and to determine whether cats and dogs differ in their exposure to SARS-CoV-2. For this purpose, we conducted an extensive SARS-CoV-2 serological survey of 2036 cats and 3577 dogs sampled by veterinarians during medical examinations in clinics throughout France. Sampling was carried out from October 2020 through June 2021, a period encompassing the second and third waves of SARS-CoV-2 infections in humans in the country. Using a microsphere immunoassay targeting receptor binding domain and trimeric spike protein, we found 7.1% seroprevalence in pets, in a subset of 308 seropositive samples, 26.3% had neutralizing antibodies. We found that cats were significantly more likely to test positive than dogs, with seropositivity rates of 9.3% and 5.9% in cats and dogs, respectively. Finally, data for both species showed that seroprevalence was lower in older animals and was not associated with the date of sampling or the sex of the animal. Our results show that cats are significantly more sensitive to SARS-CoV-2 than dogs, in line with experimental studies showing that cats are more susceptible than dogs. This study reinforces that pets are commonly infected or exposed to SARS-CoV-2, emphasizing the importance of a One-Health approach to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and raising the question of vaccination of companion animals in close contact with humans.

We designed our methods to estimate carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus fluxes through individual households, and to address two primary questions:

1. How are these fluxes distributed across households?
2. What biophysical and socioeconomic factors contribute to differences in these fluxes across households?

Our hybrid approach combines:

1. A mailed survey 
2. Energy provider records
3. On-the-ground landscape measurements
4. A computational tool (the Household Flux Calculator)
4. Parcel data (interpreted using GIS)

The resulting dataset includes information on biophysical and socioeconomic variables that potentially influence household-level fluxes of elements. Using this method to study element fluxes at the household level allows us to explicitly link consumption choices and element fluxes.

Relationship between socio-demographic, physical, psychological, and social factors and pet ownership (any pet, dog, and cat ownership).