Americans' Favorite Furry Friends

According to a survey by the American Veterinary Medical Association, dog owning households outnumber cat owning households in the United States. While an estimated 32 million households shared their home with a cat in 2017/18, more than 48 million had a dog under their roof. The next most popular pets to have in the U.S. were not furry, but scaly and feathery: They are fish, followed by reptiles and birds. Owning pet poultry, for example chickens, was almost as common as having a rabbit at 1.4 and 1.5 million households, respectively.

While the numbers from the AVMA do not account for pet ownership overlap, i.e. households that own more than one type of pet, this info can be gleaned from the General Social Survey, carried out by the University of Chicago. In 2018, the survey concluded that 61 percent of U.S. households owned a pet. In 33 percent of cases, this was a dog, 14 percent of households owned both dogs and cats and 11 percent owned just cats. According to this survey, only four percent of households had other combinations of pets. The AVMA meanwhile estimates that 57 percent of American households have pets, about in line with the General Social Survey estimation.