Pet ownership in Italy 2019, by pet

Unsurprisingly, dogs and cats are the most popular pet animals among Italians. According to a survey from 2019, 60 percent of Italians pet owners had a dog and 58 percent owned a cat. Other popular pet animals appeared to be fish, turtles, and birds. In terms of absolute value, fishes were the most numerous pets in Italy, followed by birds.

Dog lovers

In a 2018 survey, most Italians declared to prefer dogs as domestic animal. The dog population in Italy was measured at approximately 11.6 million in 2018, which means roughly a dog every 5,2 inhabitant. The regions with the largest number of dogs were the Northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto. Lombardy counted 1.6 million pet dogs, while Veneto had 1.3 million dogs.

Dog and cat food market

As the number of pets owned by Italians increased in the last years, the sales value of dog and cat food also rose. In 2019, the selling of food for dogs and cats had a value of over two billiob euros, showing a steadily increase since 2012. The most valuable pets’ foods was were those for cats. Indeed For example, the sales of wet food products for cats was worth double than that of wet food for dogs.