Pet spending in the United States reached $158 billion in 2025, according to the APPA 2026 State of the Industry Report. APPA projects the market to reach $165 billion in 2026, while noting that about 2% of that growth is driven by inflation. These figures describe the total U.S. pet industry, not an average household budget, and the latest estimates cover different measurement years.
Contents
- Market size and growth
- Where pet owners spend
- Pet ownership and household reach
- How spending is changing
- Shopping channels and purchasing behavior
- Pet spending and the U.S. economy
Market size and growth
The long-term APPA Industry Trends & Stats series shows how substantially the U.S. pet market has expanded. Total expenditures rose from $97.1 billion in 2019 to $103.6 billion in 2020. They then reached $123.6 billion in 2021, $136.8 billion in 2022, $147.0 billion in 2023, and $152 billion in 2024.
APPA’s 2024 actual U.S. market sales were also reported as $152 billion. That repeated figure refers to the same 2024 market total rather than a separate spending category. The 2025 total of $158 billion in the APPA 2026 State of the Industry Report represents a 3.7% increase from the prior year. APPA projects another increase to $165 billion in 2026.
| Measurement year | U.S. pet industry expenditures |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $97.1 billion |
| 2020 | $103.6 billion |
| 2021 | $123.6 billion |
| 2022 | $136.8 billion |
| 2023 | $147.0 billion |
| 2024 | $152 billion |
| 2025 | $158 billion |
| 2026 projection | $165 billion |
Source: [APPA Industry Trends & Stats] (source label supplied in the APPA research); 2025 and 2026 figures: APPA 2026 State of the Industry Report. The 2026 number is a projection, while the earlier annual figures are reported expenditures or actual sales as labeled by APPA.
APPA says about 2% of 2026 growth is driven by inflation. That distinction matters when interpreting a larger dollar total: nominal market growth can reflect both higher spending and higher prices. The report does not provide a household-level average in the supplied figures, so the industry total should not be treated as the amount a typical pet owner spends.
Where pet owners spend
APPA’s category breakdown shows that food and treats are the largest reported component of U.S. pet industry sales. In 2024, pet food and treats accounted for $68.3 billion. Vet care and product sales accounted for $41.0 billion, while supplies, live animals, and over-the-counter medicine accounted for $34.4 billion. Other services contributed $14.3 billion.
Together, these categories describe the main channels through which pet-related dollars move: recurring nutrition purchases, medical care, products and medicines, and services. The categories are reported as market sales, so they should not be read as a precise personal budget split for every household.
For 2026, APPA’s category projections are $69.7 billion for pet food and treats, $42.4 billion for vet care and product sales, $35.6 billion for supplies, live animals, and over-the-counter medicine, and $14.9 billion for other services.
| Category | 2024 actual sales | 2026 projection |
|---|---|---|
| Pet food and treats | $68.3 billion | $69.7 billion |
| Supplies, live animals, and OTC medicine | $34.4 billion | $35.6 billion |
| Vet care and product sales | $41.0 billion | $42.4 billion |
| Other services | $14.3 billion | $14.9 billion |
Source: APPA Industry Trends & Stats. The 2024 column is reported sales, and the 2026 column is a projection. APPA’s supplied category figures total the reported $158.0 billion across the 2024 categories and $162.6 billion across the listed 2026 projections; the provided data does not explain the difference between that latter category sum and the separate $165 billion total projection, so the two measures should be kept distinct.
Pet ownership and household reach
The size of the pet-spending market is connected to how many households own animals. The APPA 2026 State of the Industry Report says 95 million U.S. households owned at least one pet in 2025. Dog ownership reached 53% of U.S. households, representing 71 million households, up from 51% in 2024. APPA says that increase represented about 4 million additional dog-owning households year over year.
Cat ownership reached 39% of U.S. households in 2025, or 53 million households, and cat ownership increased 5% year over year. These dog and cat measures use the report’s stated household percentages and household counts; they are not estimates of the number of individual animals.
The APPA Economic Impact figures use a different ownership measure and should be kept separate from the 2025 industry report. That source says 71.1% of U.S. households own at least one pet, 51.1% own at least one dog, and 36.9% own at least one cat. The differences from the 2025 percentages may reflect the source, methodology, or measurement period; the supplied figures do not provide enough detail to reconcile them.
Changes were also reported among Gen X households. Gen X dog ownership increased 12% year over year, while Gen X cat ownership increased 8%. Among the same group, bird ownership increased 25%, reptile ownership increased 20%, and freshwater fish ownership increased 17%. These are year-over-year ownership changes, not dollar-spending growth rates.
How spending is changing
Recent APPA figures show that owners did not all respond to market conditions in the same way. The APPA 2026 State of the Industry Report says 22% of pet owners reported spending less on pets in 2025. That share was a 10% increase from 2024, as stated by APPA. About half of pet owners reported unchanged spending in 2025.
Those findings describe owner-reported direction of spending rather than a dollar amount. A household can report spending less while still purchasing food, medicine, or veterinary care, and another household can spend more because of a new pet, a health need, or a change in products. The supplied report does not quantify the average reduction or increase behind these responses.
Earlier APPA reporting provides another view of the post-COVID period. The APPA blog article “Pet Owners Report Spending More on Their Pets Post-COVID” says 85% of pet owners spent more or the same amount on pets post-COVID. In that report, 39% said they spent more compared with the prior year, and 46% said they spent about the same amount compared with prior years.
These percentages are from a different APPA source and reporting context than the 2025 spending responses. They should not be combined into a single time series. Taken separately, they indicate that pet spending has remained resilient for many owners even as a substantial share reported reducing spending in the later period.
Shopping channels and purchasing behavior
Pet spending is distributed across physical and digital shopping channels. APPA’s “Purchasing Behaviors of Pet Owners in 2024” reports that nearly 80% of all dollars spent on pet care are spent by omni-shoppers. In that context, omni-shoppers are buyers using both in-store and online purchasing.
The same APPA source says 57% of buyers shop both in-store and online. It reports that 39.7% of buyers exclusively buy in-store, while 3.35% exclusively buy online. These measures describe buyer behavior, not the dollar share of each channel. The nearly 80% figure is specifically about dollars spent by omni-shoppers, whereas the 57%, 39.7%, and 3.35% figures are shares of buyers.
The difference between buyer share and dollar share is useful when interpreting pet retail statistics. A group can represent fewer buyers but account for a larger share of spending if its purchases are more frequent or higher value. The supplied APPA figures do not provide enough information to calculate an average order, annual online spend, or annual in-store spend.
Pet spending and the U.S. economy
Pet spending also has an economic footprint beyond the sales recorded by pet businesses. APPA’s Economic Impact figures estimate that American pet owners spent $36.62 billion on pets in 2024 for economic-impact calculations. The same source says the U.S. pet sector contributes $302.6 billion directly and indirectly to the U.S. economy.
APPA estimates that the sector supports 2.75 million jobs nationwide, including 1.27 million jobs in pet-related goods and service industries. Earnings from pet-industry jobs totaled $140.12 billion. These figures describe economic impact and employment associated with the sector; they are not additional household pet-spending totals to add to the $152 billion market-sales figure.
Tax revenue is another reported part of the impact. Americans generated $21.6 billion in pet-related tax revenue, according to APPA Economic Impact. The breakdown was $3.85 billion in federal tax revenue, $8.04 billion in state tax revenue, and $9.79 billion in local tax revenue. Those three levels sum to the stated $21.68 billion when rounded source figures are added, so the published $21.6 billion total should remain the controlling reported figure rather than being replaced by unsupported recalculation.
The economic-impact source also reports that 71.1% of U.S. households own at least one pet. Because the economic-impact figures use their own source and measurement context, readers should keep them distinct from the APPA 2025 ownership percentages and the APPA 2026 industry projections above. Together, the measures show the scale of the sector, the households it reaches, and the jobs and tax activity associated with pet-related commerce.