According to data, 22 percent of people in Italy had had their pet for one to five years. Some four percent of respondents stated to have had their per for less than a year, whereas five percent between 21 and 25 years.

The share of households owning a pet in the United Kingdom remained relatively stable between 2012 and 2018, hovering around an estimated percentage of 47 to 45 percent. However, pet ownership levels peaked to an unprecedented high of 62 percent in 2022, likely as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and increased time spent at home. In 2023, this figure shrank to 57 percent.

Pet ownership in the UK With more than half of UK households owning at least one pet in 2021/22, dogs and cats were the most common household pets in that year, with an estimated 13 million dogs and 12 million cats living in homes. As of 2020, the United Kingdom was the second highest-ranking European country in terms of its dog population, preceded only by Germany.

Consumer spending on pets in the UK As the pet population in the United Kingdom increased in size, so did consumer spending on pet food and pet-related products and services. Spending on pets and related products reached almost eight billion British pounds in 2020, a notable increase from a mere 2.9 billion British pounds in 2005. Among the most expensive pet-related expenditures are veterinary and pet services, which constituted almost four billion British pounds in 2020.

In 2019, 85 percent of pets owned in Mexico were dogs, while 15 percent were cats. In that same year, the sales volume of dog food produced in the country reached nearly 937 thousand metric tons.

This statistic shows a ranking of the leading pets owned by households in the United Kingdom (UK) between 2016 and 2019, broken down by region. In London, 14 percent of people were cat owners, while 9 percent owned a dog, making this the only region were cats were more popular than dogs.

In total, 45 percent of the UK population own a pet . This figure has increased by five percent since 2016. Over 90 percent of pet owners in the UK say that owning a pet makes them feel happy and 88 percent feel that pet ownership improves their overall quality of life.

With such as high ownership of pets in the United Kingdom, this leads the path for retailers in a growing and dynamic market. Pet food has a key role to play, with dog and cat food alone estimated at 2.5 billion British pounds in 2017.

Residents of Pereira reported the highest pet ownership among major Colombian cities, with 69 percent of respondents saying they owned a pet. Among seven of the eight cities surveyed, the percentage of pet owners surpasses 60 percent. Only Bucaramanga showed a lower pet ownership, at only 40 percent.

An estimated 65.1 million households in the United States owned at least one dog according to a 2023/24 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 46.5 million and 11.1 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 66 percent of all households in the United States owned a pet. This is a decrease from 2020, but still around a 10 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 136 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.

From 2014 to 2019, the share of pet owners in Italy decreased overall. However, the share of Italians owning more than one pet increased from approximately 12 percent in 2014 to about 17 percent in 2019. During the same period, the share of respondents owning only one pet decreased from 27.5 to 17 percent, while the share of respondents not owning animals increased from 60.6 to 66.4 percent.

Dogs and cats were the most popular pet species among Chilean households in 2019. Up to 79 percent of the pet owners surveyed reported to own at least one dog, while 42 percent were cat owners. Any other pet species showed a preference of 3 percent or less.

Sixty six percent of households in the United States owned one or more pets in 2023. Household penetration rates for pet-ownership have increased by 10 percent since the beginning of the survey period in 1988.

What kinds of pets do Americans prefer?

There were estimated to be around 65 million dog-owning households in the United States according to a recent survey, making dogs the most popular kind of pets in American homes. Cats and freshwater fish ranked in second and third places, respectively. Horses and saltwater fish were the least popular types of animals to keep, with around 2.2 million households owning each type of pet.

How much do Americans spend on their pets?

Total pet industry expenditure reached around 136.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, an increase on the previous year. As well as regular expenses such as food and vet costs, households were estimated spend around 1.7 billion U.S. dollars on Valentine's Day gifts for their pets in 2023.

During a survey conducted in 2024, it was revealed that millennials represented the biggest share of pet owners in the United States (32 percent), followed in second place by Generation X (24 percent). Baby Boomer's came in third, representing some 24 percent of pet owners. Pet ownership in the United States Despite some fluctuations, household penetration rates for pet ownership in the United States have generally increased over the years, going from 56 percent in 1988 to approximately 66 percent in 2023. With millennials constituting the largest group of pet owners in the United States, they also constituted the generational group that planned to spend the most on their pets during the holidays in 2020, with an average spending of 51 U.S. dollars, compared to only 28 U.S. dollars of average planned spending on pets for Baby Boomers. Pet expenditure in the U.S. Pet food and treats constituted the highest selling category for pet products in the United States, with total food and treats sales reaching 58.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Vet care and product sales were the second biggest pet market category that year, generating around 35.9 billion U.S. dollars in sales. Generally, average annual pet expenditure was higher for dog owners than for cat owners across all pet market categories in 2020.

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 48 percent of male Millennial survey respondents stated that they owned a cat and 71 percent owned a dog. In comparison, 35 and 62 percent of female respondents were cat and/or dog owners, respectively.

Pet ownership rates in the United States

In 2019, 67 percent of all households in the United States owned a pet . This is over a ten percent increase from 1988. Almost 50 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 38 and 10 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 139.3 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 94.2 and 89.7 million living in U.S. households respectively.

Among the wide variety of animals kept as pets, cats and dogs are the most common. In Spain, dogs seem to be the most popular pet, with 27 percent of Spanish households owing at least one canine in 2023. The share of households that owned a cat experienced an ongoing decrease over the recent years, falling to 11 percent in 2019 down from a 21 percent in 2010. This figure picked up again in 2022 to reach 17 percent.

Dogs: Spain’s favorite domestic animal

The popularity of dogs in Spain cannot be denied – the number of hounds has only increased in the last years, reaching figures of approximately 9.3 million in 2023. The number of stray and street dogs recused on the Spanish streets saw a drop over time, falling from 108,300 dogs in 2013 down to 104,700. This figure, however, increased dramatically in 2019.

The situation of pet cats in Spain

Spanish homes had around 5.8 million pet cats in 2023, which is about half the number of that of dogs the same year. The number of rescued stray or street felines was also significantly lower compared to dogs, until figures rocketed in 2019. The fate of rescued street and stray pets normally has a happy ending, with nearly half of them adopted by a new family and 18 percent returned to their original homes that year.

Unsurprisingly, dogs and cats are the most popular pet animals among Italians. According to a survey from 2019, 60 percent of Italians pet owners had a dog and 58 percent owned a cat. Other popular pet animals appeared to be fish, turtles, and birds. In terms of absolute value, fishes were the most numerous pets in Italy, followed by birds.

Dog lovers

In a 2018 survey, most Italians declared to prefer dogs as domestic animal. The dog population in Italy was measured at approximately 11.6 million in 2018, which means roughly a dog every 5,2 inhabitant. The regions with the largest number of dogs were the Northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto. Lombardy counted 1.6 million pet dogs, while Veneto had 1.3 million dogs.

Dog and cat food market

As the number of pets owned by Italians increased in the last years, the sales value of dog and cat food also rose. In 2019, the selling of food for dogs and cats had a value of over two billiob euros, showing a steadily increase since 2012. The most valuable pets’ foods was were those for cats. Indeed For example, the sales of wet food products for cats was worth double than that of wet food for dogs.

Dogs were the most popular pet species among Colombian households in 2019. Over 73 percent of survey respondents reported to own a dog. Cats and birds occupy the second and third place of the list with 41 and 12 percent, respectively. Turtles, chickens and rabbits were only chosen by one percent of respondents.

In 2021, around 68.4 million Chinese urban residents kept cats or dogs as pets, an increase from 62.9 million in the previous year. In that year, the number of dog owners increased by about 200 thousand, while the number of cat owners increased by about five million.

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.

According to a survey on pet ownership in Vietnam, around 61 percent of respondents stated that they purchased pet supplies. According to the source, around 23 percent of respondents were pet owners.

From 2010 to 2023, the share of cats in Swedish households was higher than the share of dogs. In 2019, 19 percent of households owned at least one cat, while there were 15 percent of dog-owning households. In 2023, the share amounted to 21 percent of cat owners as well as 15 percent of dog owners. The number of the popular pet animal cats grew in this period from 1.27 million to 1.72 million cats.    Most popular cat breeds  The Ragdoll cat breed came first in the popularity ranking measured by number of purchased animals in Sweden in 2021. In this year, nearly three thousand animals of this breed were bought. The Maine Coon ranked second with a number of around two thousand purchased cats, ahead of the Siberian Cat cat and the Norwegian Forest cat.  Pet dogs  In Sweden in 2010, there were 749 thousand pet dogs. This number increased by almost 300 thousand and, in 2022, peaked at about 1.04 million animals. As of 2019, the Labrador Retriever was the most purchased dog breed in the country, reaching over 2.9 thousand animals. It was followed by approximately 1.95 thousand purchased Golden Retriever dogs as well as German Shepherd dogs.

According to a survey on pet ownership in Vietnam, around 19 percent of urban citizens in Vietnam owned at least a dog while approximately 15 percent of respondents owned at least a cat. According to the source, around 23 percent of respondents were pet owners.

Taking together, nearly 70 percent of the participants surveyed in 2019 in Russia, submitted that they have a domestic animal in their family. As for pet ownership distribution among the age-groups, the highest rate was measured for participants aged between 18 to 25 years and, between 45 to 59 years, respectively.