Why pet owners spend $158 billion: The surprising benefits you never knew about
People have cherished their pets for centuries. Animals were once the exclusive property of royalty, a symbol of wealth and power. Now they’re beloved family members.
And Americans don’t contain their love or limit their spending.
The American Pet Products Association (APPA) tracks the numbers year after year, and they tell a remarkable story.
Total U.S. pet industry spending hit $158 billion in 2025, according to APPA’s 2026 State of the Industry Report. That’s more than double the 2018 figure. And APPA projects the industry will reach $192 billion by 2030.
What’s driving those numbers?
In 2025, APPA broke spending into four major buckets: food and treats ($67.8 billion), veterinary care and products ($41.4 billion), supplies and over-the-counter medicines ($34.3 billion), and grooming, boarding, and other services ($13.5 billion). Every single category grew year over year.
Who’s spending the most?
Millennials lead all generations in pet ownership, but Gen Z is the fastest-growing group. In 2024, 18.8 million Gen Z households owned a pet, a 43.5% increase from the year before. Seventy percent of Gen Z pet owners have two or more animals.
That’s not a trend. That’s a movement.
Both Gen Z and Millennial males, in particular, are driving significant growth. In 2024, 58% of Gen Z men and 63% of Millennial men owned a dog.
Compare those figures to just a year earlier, and the increases are 15% and 19%, respectively. Gen Z also leads in social-media-driven shopping, relying on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to discover and buy pet products.
Ownership of emotional support dogs, animals explicitly trained to provide love and support, is also climbing. These dogs can help owners suffering from anxiety, phobias, mood disorders, and depression, among other conditions.
Millennials have been the most outspoken generation about mental ailments. Their vocal support for seeking help and spreading awareness has contributed to the popularity of emotional support dogs. As a result, the cost of owning an emotional support dog or any other emotional support animal has never been higher.
It’s not just young people, either. Gen X stepped up in a big way in 2025, with dog ownership growing 12% year over year among that cohort. Cat ownership among Gen X rose by 8%, and smaller pets like birds, reptiles, and freshwater fish saw double-digit gains among Gen X, too.
How many American homes have pets?
As of 2024, 71% of U.S. households, roughly 94 million families, own at least one pet. That’s up from 56% in 1988, when APPA first started tracking the data. Think about that: nearly three out of four American homes now include an animal companion.
Dogs remain the top choice. About 51% of U.S. households, or 68 million homes, own a dog. Cats aren’t far behind: 37% of households, representing around 49 million homes.
Cat ownership actually surged 23% in a single year, from 2023 to 2024, with 2025 showing continued momentum.
Beyond dogs and cats, Americans keep freshwater fish (10 million households), birds, reptiles, and small animals (6 million each).
What’s also striking is how many households have multiple pets. Sixty-three percent of pet-owning households share their home with more than one animal. We don’t just love our pets. We collect them.
Food: The biggest slice of the bowl
Food and treats remain the single largest spending category.
In 2024, Americans spent $65.8 billion on pet food and treats alone, and that figure is projected to climb to $67.8 billion in 2025. Just as people scrutinize ingredient labels at the grocery store, pet owners increasingly do the same for their animals.
Premium food purchases rebounded strongly in 2024, with 41% of dog owners and 38% of cat owners choosing premium products, up 5% and 9% respectively from the year before. Basic food purchases fell 7% across both species. The message is clear: owners are trading up.
Newer categories are also surging. Food toppers and mixers, products designed to boost nutrition and palatability, grew by 129% among dog owners and 138% among cat owners between 2018 and 2024. Functional diets that include prebiotics and probiotics have seen major growth, too. Pet owners want their animals to eat as well as they do.
And the refrigerated and frozen pet food segment is exploding. That category grew 17.8% in a single year to reach $1.6 billion, making it the only major pet food format to post strong growth as other formats softened. Brands like Freshpet are leading the charge.
Vet care: The cost that keeps climbing
Veterinary care and related products now represent the second-largest spending category, totaling $39.8 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $41.4 billion in 2025.
That’s more than double what Americans spent on vet care just a decade ago.
Vet costs grew 7.1% between April 2023 and April 2024, the sharpest increase of any pet expense category. Zooming out further, vet prices rose 29.5% between 2021 and 2024. That outpaces food inflation and wages for most pet-owning households.
Consolidation among veterinary chains, rising costs for diagnostics and pharmaceuticals, and a greater willingness to pursue advanced treatments for aging pets are all pushing prices higher.
More pet owners are turning to pet insurance to manage those costs. At year-end 2024, 7 million pets in North America had insurance coverage, a 12.2% increase from 2023.
The average annual premium for accident and illness coverage runs about $676 for dogs and $383 for cats. It’s not cheap, but one unexpected surgery can easily cost $5,000 or more, making insurance feel like a smart bet.
In 2024, Americans spent $33.3 billion on pet supplies, live animals, and over-the-counter medicines, including toys, supplements, flea and tick preventatives, and heartworm medications. That’s up 4.1% from the year before.
Then there’s everything else. Grooming, dog walking, boarding, training, and other pet services totaled $13 billion in 2024, growing 5.7% year over year. These aren’t luxuries for most pet owners. They’re essentials woven into daily routines.
Consider this: 53% of dog owners now walk their dogs for daily errands at least once a week. Birthday parties for pets are at an all-time high, with 44% of dog owners and 32% of cat owners buying birthday gifts for their animals.
Twenty-seven percent of dog owners threw a birthday or holiday party for their pet in 2024.
Is your dog’s birthday on your calendar? You’re not alone if it is.
The big picture: A $158 billion bond
Here’s what the numbers really say: Americans don’t just love their pets. They invest in them. The pet industry generated a $312 billion economic contribution in 2024 and supported 2.8 million U.S. jobs.
It’s the top category in the fast-moving consumer goods sector, outpacing grocery and dairy.
Even when budgets tighten, pets don’t get cut. In 2024, 77% of U.S. pet owners said financial pressures hadn’t changed their pet ownership at all.
About half kept their spending exactly the same despite inflation hitting everything else in their household budget. People trade down on vacations, restaurant meals, and new clothes before they trade down on their dog’s food.
The pet industry has grown more than 56% since 2019. It weathered a pandemic, supply chain chaos, and years of inflation without losing momentum.
Why? Because the bond between people and their pets isn’t a trend. It’s a constant.
Whether you’re budgeting for your first puppy or trying to figure out why your monthly pet expenses keep climbing.
Your pet deserves the best. A little planning makes sure you can afford to give it to them
Josh Cobbe, the admin of petdogplanet.com, is a full-time professional writer. He occasionally shares his insights and experience on other pet-related blogs.