Total number of horses in the United Kingdom (UK) 2017, by country

As of June 2017, there were approximately 170 thousand horses in England. While Scotland has a higher population than Wales there were roughly ten thousand horses less in Scottish ownership.

Private horse ownership

In the UK, about 45 percent of all households owned pets in 2017/2018. However, horses and ponies just miss a spot in the top ten of favorite UK household animals as only 0.3 percent of UK households own one of these animals. Its estimated that roughly 200 thousand of all horses are owned pets. The top spot by household ownership and by number of owned animals in the UK goes to the dog.

The horse as an economic factor

Over 18 thousand enterprises raised horses and other equines in the UK in 2017. The overwhelming majority of these made less than 250 thousand British pounds in revenue. However, five companies had revenues over five million pounds. This is a higher revenue than was made in total with off course horse racing between April 2017 and March 2018 (4.3 million British pounds).