MMORNINGCONSULTThe State of PetOwnership inthe U.S.
About this reportDataSource:All data in this report comes fromSample:The pet ownership and audience behavior data from Section 1is based onadults. Sample sizesvarv bv audience seament the doa owner audience includes857.270 respondents and the cat owner audience includes 658,902 respondentsSample sizes for generational cuts range from approximately 79,000 to117,000The brand data from Section 2 comes from surveys conducted from January1,2025 throuah December 31. 2025. Purchase consideration data covers 28 pet and pet adjacent brands tracked in the pet owner ranking section. and over 3.000 brands tracked in the standout brands analysis. Brand-level sample sizes vary bybrand and audience seament. All brands included in the standout brands analvsismeeta minimum threshold of400 respondents withineach reported audiencesegment(AllRespondents, DoqOwners, and CatOwners)PurchaseConsideration:PurchaseconsiderationscoresreflectMorning Consult's,TotalPurchase Consideration measure. calculated as the share of respondents whosay they would consider purchasing from a brand. Higher scores indicate stronger purchase intent. Scores can be compared dlirectly across brands and audiencesegments.Audience Segments: Generational cohorts are defined as follows: GenerationZBoomers(born1946-1964),MMORNINGCONSULT'
Key TakeawaysPot ownership is at a modernhigh-and cats are growing faster.As of December12025.756% of U.S. adults live in dog-owning households and 58.6% in cat-owninghouseholds.Cat ownership has climbed roughly 8 percentage points since late 2018,outpacing doq ownership arowth over thesame neriod2. Millennials are the defining generation of pet ownership. Millennials lead allgenerations in both cat ownership (61%) and dog ownership (80%),3.Pet owners are more likely to be married, own their homes, and have children.Compared to the aeneral population. both cat and doa owners are meaningfully morelikely to be married, own their home, and have children under 18 in the household-suggesting pets are afeature of family life, not a substitute forit4. Catowners are heavier digitaland social mediausers- particularlv on nicheplatforms.Cat owners overindex on Reddit (+8ppl), Snapchat(+8pp), TikTok(+7pp) and Pinterest I+7ppl compared to the general population. Both groups are highlyengaged online, but cat owners show stronger presence across a wider ranae ofplatforms5. Both arouns are highlv encaaed consumers.Pet owners of both types aresianificantlvmorelikely thanthe aeneral population to useAmazonPrime.streancontent attend live events.and purchase through social media. Both aroups showabove-average spendinq appetite and willingness to pay for premium products.Petbrandsdominateourchaseconsiderationamonaowners-butHuluisthesurprise crossover.Hulu appears in the top 12 standout brands for both doa and cat owners, underscoring that pet households are a distinctly hiahvalue.highlvenaaaedconsum...
