Pet care by the numbers
Six figures that describe what it is like to own a pet in the United States right now, and what the published surveys behind each one actually said.
What this page is, and what it is not
This is a roundup of other people's research. Every figure links to the survey it came from, and we name the publisher and the year so you can check it yourself. It is not original AIVet research: we have not surveyed our users, we do not track our own numbers for publication, and we would rather publish nothing than invent a statistic. Where a figure we wanted simply does not exist in published form, we say so below instead of guessing.
What the numbers say
- Pet ownership is normal, not niche. 95 million U.S. households owned at least one pet in 2025; 53% of households have a dog and 53 million have a cat. Spending grew, but slowly — $158 billion in 2025, up 3.7%, with $165 billion projected for 2026. APPA / APPA State of the Industry 2026
- Weight is the biggest preventable problem we could find. In a vet-assessed survey, 59% of dogs and 61% of cats were classified as overweight or obese, and nearly a third of owners whose pet was overweight had described that pet as normal, ideal or thin. Body condition scoring is the part of a check-up worth asking about. Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, 2022 U.S. Prevalence Survey
- Cost, not interest, is what stops care. 52% of U.S. pet owners reported skipping needed veterinary care in the past year — 37% had gone in and declined a recommendation, 15% never brought the pet in at all. Of those who declined care, 71% pointed to money. PetSmart Charities / Gallup State of Pet Care Study (reported by AVMA)
- Insurance is growing fast but still covers very few pets. 6.4 million U.S. pets were insured at the end of 2024, up from 5.7 million, against a population of roughly 163.6 million cats and dogs. Growth is also slowing — 12.7% in the last year, down from 28% in the years before. NAPHIA State of the Industry 2025 (reported by AVMA) AVMA 2025 Pet Ownership and Demographics Sourcebook
- People still want a vet in the room. 72% of pet owners said they prefer to meet a veterinarian in person before letting them care for their pet, and 8 in 10 wanted a licensed vet, not a technician or mid-level employee, making the calls. Tools like ours sit before that visit, not instead of it. AVMA 2023 Pet Owner Attitude Survey
The figure we could not find
We wanted a published number for how many pet owners use AI symptom checkers. We looked, and we did not find a survey with a method we were willing to quote — most circulating figures come from the companies selling the tools. So there is no figure here, and no percentage invented to fill the gap.
How this was compiled
- Searched in September 2026 for figures published by a named organisation with a readable method.
- Kept only numbers where we could see who was surveyed, how, and when — a clinic-based body condition count is not the same thing as an online opinion poll, and we say which is which.
- No figure on this page comes from AIVet user data, our servers, or our analytics.
- Last checked against the sources on 19 September 2026. Survey data goes stale; these pages can move or be republished.
Reusing these figures
Please cite the organisation that ran the survey, not AIVet — we only collected links. The source names above are all clickable, and each figure in the list repeats its source right where it is used.
Spotted a figure that no longer matches its source?
Tell us and we will correct it or take it down. Same address if you want a source we did not use.
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