Pet bow ties sit at the intersection of pet care, gifting, celebrations, and personal style. There is no supplied national series measuring bow-tie purchases specifically, but the available U.S. figures show the size of the dog-owning audience and the strength of gift-oriented pet behavior. APPA reported $152 billion in U.S. pet industry spending in 2024 and projected $157 billion for 2025.
Contents
- The size of the U.S. pet audience
- Where pet spending is concentrated
- Dog ownership and the likely bow-tie audience
- Gifts, parties, and celebratory pets
- Travel and occasions for dressing a dog
- Generational and household patterns
The size of the U.S. pet audience
APPA’s State of the Industry 2025 reported that 94 million U.S. households owned at least one pet in 2024. The same report counted 68 million dog-owning households and 49 million cat-owning households. Those figures describe households, not individual animals, so they should not be read as a count of pets or as a direct count of potential bow-tie buyers.
The later APPA State of the Industry 2026 figures put pet ownership at 71.1% of U.S. households in 2025. Dogs appeared in 51.1% of households in that report, while cats appeared in 36.9%. APPA also reported an average of 1.7 pets per U.S. household in 2025 and counted 53 million cat-owning households. Another APPA figure in the same source states that 53% of U.S. households owned a dog in 2025. Because the two dog percentages are reported as separate figures, they are retained as reported rather than reconciled here.
| Measure | Reported figure | Measurement period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. households owning at least one pet | 94 million | 2024 | APPA, State of the Industry 2025 |
| U.S. dog-owning households | 68 million | 2024 | APPA, State of the Industry 2025 |
| U.S. households owning at least one pet | 71.1% | 2025 | APPA, State of the Industry 2026 |
| U.S. households owning a dog | 51.1% | 2025 | APPA, State of the Industry 2026 |
| Average pets per U.S. household | 1.7 | 2025 | APPA, State of the Industry 2026 |
For a pet bow tie guide, the important context is the scale of the dog-owning household base. A bow tie is a niche accessory, but it is presented to a large national audience of dog owners. The available data supports that audience context; it does not establish how many households own, buy, or use bow ties.
Where pet spending is concentrated
APPA’s State of the Industry 2025 reported $152 billion in total U.S. pet industry spending in 2024. Its category breakdown included $65.8 billion for pet food and treats, $33.3 billion for supplies, live animals, and over-the-counter medicine, $39.8 billion for veterinary care and product sales, and $13.0 billion for other services.
Supplies, live animals, and over-the-counter medicine therefore represented a reported $33.3 billion category in 2024. That category is broader than accessories, and the supplied figures do not identify the portion attributable to collars, clothing, bow ties, or other fashion items. It is still the closest reported spending category for readers comparing an accessory with the wider pet-supplies market.
APPA’s State of the Industry 2026 projected U.S. pet spending at $165 billion in 2026. The same source reported projected growth of 3.7% in 2025 and 4.4% in 2026, with roughly 2% of 2026 growth expected to be inflation-driven. These are projections, not completed spending totals. They also describe the whole U.S. pet market rather than the bow-tie segment.
The distinction matters when interpreting pet bow tie statistics. Total industry spending can indicate a broad commercial environment for pet products, while supplies spending gives a closer category signal. Neither measure is a bow-tie sales estimate, and neither should be presented as one.
Dog ownership and the likely bow-tie audience
The dog-owning household figures are more directly relevant than the cat, fish, or reptile figures because a bow tie is commonly discussed as a dog accessory. APPA counted 68 million U.S. households with a dog in 2024. In 2025, APPA reported that dogs were present in 51.1% of U.S. households and separately reported dog ownership at 53% of households.
Household composition also affects how many pets a buyer may be shopping for. APPA reported that U.S. households owned an average of 1.7 pets in 2025. In the 2024 data, 70% of Gen Z pet owners had two or more pets. A household with more than one pet may consider coordinated accessories, but the supplied research does not measure coordinated purchases or bow-tie ownership.
The overall ownership context includes other animals as well. APPA reported that 11 million U.S. households kept backyard chickens in 2024, up 28% from 2023. It also reported 10 million households with fish, 6 million with reptiles, and 2 million with saltwater fish in 2024. These figures help describe the breadth of the pet market, but they are not evidence that those animals are part of the dog bow-tie audience.
Gifts, parties, and celebratory pets
The strongest supplied evidence for a bow-tie use case comes from pet celebrations. APPA reported that 44% of dog owners gave birthday gifts to their dogs in 2024. For comparison, 32% of cat owners gave birthday gifts to their cats. The corresponding 2022 figures were 36% for dog owners and 24% for cat owners.
APPA also reported that 27% of dog owners held birthday or holiday parties for their dogs in 2024. The comparable cat figure was 20%. These statistics do not specify the type, price, or appearance of the gifts, and they do not identify bow ties. They do show that a substantial share of dog owners reported a gift or party behavior during the measured period.
| Celebratory behavior | Dogs | Cats | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owners giving birthday gifts | 44% | 32% | 2024 |
| Owners giving birthday gifts | 36% | 24% | 2022 |
| Owners holding birthday or holiday parties | 27% | 20% | 2024 |
The change between the 2022 and 2024 birthday-gift figures is reported here as two measurements, not as an unsupported market-growth calculation. APPA is the source for all figures in this comparison. Readers considering a pet bow tie for a birthday, holiday, adoption anniversary, or photo occasion can use these numbers as behavioral context, not as a probability that any individual owner will buy one.
Other APPA findings also point to active involvement in dogs’ daily lives. In 2024, 50% of dog owners walked their dog on foot weekly, 53% used the car for errands with their dog, and 55% tailored travel plans around their dog. Those behaviors create practical and social occasions in which an owner may want a dog to look tidy or distinctive, although the research does not connect any of them to accessory purchases.
Travel and occasions for dressing a dog
APPA reported that 88% of dog owners traveled in the car with their dog in 2024. It also reported that 68% traveled by plane with their dog. Among dog owners, 34% took three or more car trips with their dog and 22% took three or more plane trips during that period.
These figures are travel statistics, not dress-code statistics. They do not establish that dogs wore bow ties during trips, that airlines permitted a particular accessory, or that a travel occasion generated a purchase. They do help identify why owners may search for compact, occasion-specific pet accessories: travel, family visits, celebrations, and photographs can all put a dog in a more public setting.
The cat figures provide context for the broader pet-travel findings. APPA reported that 90% of cat owners traveled in the car with their cat in 2024 and 80% traveled by plane. It reported three or more car trips for 30% of cat owners and three or more plane trips for 22%. APPA also reported that 36% of cat owners tailored travel plans around their cat, compared with 55% of dog owners tailoring travel plans around their dog.
For a dog bow tie, the useful takeaway is limited but clear: dog owners reported frequent travel-related involvement, and many also reported planning around their dogs. The supplied figures cannot tell us whether an accessory was used, how often it was used, or which style performed best.
Generational and household patterns
APPA’s State of the Industry 2025 reported that Gen Z represented 20% of pet-owning households in 2024, equal to 18.8 million households. Gen Z pet-owning households were up 43.5% from 2023. Gen Z represented 20% of dog-owning households and 20% of cat-owning households in 2024.
Within the same report, Gen Z dog-owning households were up 18% from 2023 and Gen Z cat-owning households were up 25%. These are reported year-over-year changes for the specified household groups. They should not be interpreted as growth in bow-tie demand, because the source did not measure bow-tie purchasing.
The report also included gender composition figures for selected owner groups. Men accounted for 58% of Gen Z dog owners and 63% of Millennial dog owners in 2024. Men accounted for 38% of Gen Z cat owners and 46% of Millennial cat owners. These figures describe the owner groups in the report; they do not establish preferences for colors, fastening methods, fabrics, or formal versus casual accessories.
APPA reported that 77% of pet owners said the economy had not affected pet ownership in 2024. That finding concerns pet ownership, not discretionary accessory spending. It should therefore be kept separate from any claim about whether owners are willing to purchase a pet bow tie.
Taken together, the reported statistics describe a large dog-owning market, meaningful pet-gifting behavior, and many households that include multiple pets. They provide context for evaluating pet bow ties as a small accessory category, while leaving bow-tie sales, ownership, prices, designs, and usage rates unmeasured in the available figures.
Related pet shopping signals
The supplied APPA research includes several shopping figures for other pet categories. In 2024, 64% of reptile owners bought gifts, and average reptile-owner gift spending was $34.20. The corresponding average in 2023 was $24.10. These figures are explicitly about reptile owners, so they should not be transferred to dog accessories or treated as a pet bow tie price benchmark.
For supplies, APPA reported that pet superstores were the largest source at 18% in 2024. The reported pet-superstore share for supplies was 14% in 2023. Those figures concern where supplies were obtained, not online accessory conversion, bow-tie sales, or the preferred channel for dog clothing.
The clearest evidence-supported picture is therefore a set of boundaries: 68 million U.S. dog-owning households were reported for 2024; 44% of dog owners reported giving birthday gifts in 2024; 27% reported holding birthday or holiday parties; and the national pet industry reached $152 billion in reported 2024 spending. None of those figures isolates pet bow ties, so they are best used to understand the surrounding pet-care and celebration market rather than to estimate a bow-tie market size.