How Many Households Have Pets? Now We Know

Pets are a big deal to millions of Americans. The average household spends more on pets than it does on any other entertainment item (pet spending is categorized as entertainment by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey). Despite this importance, good data on pet ownership is hard to find. A January article in the Washington Post called the estimates of pet ownership "fuzzy statistics" because they are all over the place, ranging from a low of 49 percent of households (American Housing Survey) to a high of 68 percent of households (American Pet Products Association), according to the Post article.

Now we have a more precise estimate, thanks to the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey (GSS). The GSS has been conducted biennially since 1972, but not until 2018 did it ask about pet ownership. The finding: 61 percent of households own pets.

What makes this estimate more accurate than others? The GSS pet estimate is better than the American Housing Survey estimate because the GSS pet module was designed specifically to collect data on pet ownership, asking nearly a dozen questions about pets. In contrast, the American Housing Survey asked only a single question, the purpose of which was to provide information for emergency management—would you need assistance in evacuating or sheltering pets? Respondents could answer yes, no, or no pets. It's no surprise that the resulting estimate lowballed pet ownership in the United States.

The GSS estimate is better than the American Pet Products Association (APPA) estimate because of the stellar methodology of the GSS. Starting with a full probability sample design, the GSS is conducted primarily through in-person interviews and has a response rate of more than 60 percent. In contrast, respondents to the APPA survey are recruited online, an "opt-in" methodology that is likely to oversample pet owners. That explains why the APPA data highballed pet ownership.

Back to the 61 percent. That's the great majority of households, folks. The GSS results show that 24 percent of households have one pet, and 36 percent have two or more...

Households by number of pets
No pets: 39%
1 pet: 24%
2 pets: 14%
3 or more pets: 22%

A substantial 46 percent of households have dogs and 25 percent have cats. A handful of households have birds (4 percent), fish (4 percent), small mammals such as gerbils (4 percent), reptiles (3 percent), and horses (1 percent).

When those living without pets are asked why they have resisted the call of the wild, the single most common reason is that they are too busy (36 percent). Another 20 percent say they simply aren't interested. Allergies or health risks are cited by 13 percent, and residential restrictions prevent 11 percent from becoming pet owners.

Source: Demo Memo analysis of the 2018 General Social Survey