Cats: US Pet Market Trends and Opportunities, 2nd Edition

Cats: US Pet Market Trends and Opportunities, 2nd Edition

As the second largest component of the U.S. pet industry by animal type, cats are a $43 billion market—representing 30% of total 2023 pet industry sales of $145 billion—and are poised to account for an even larger share of the business in the years ahead. As personal companions, cats stack up favorably against dogs on numerous fronts as smaller and generally easier to manage fur babies. Cats are typically lower-cost options compared to dogs, which is especially appealing for economically challenged households, and require less space for those with smaller homes or no backyards.

The US pet industry has long been overtly canine-centric, and this bias has not been lost on cat owners eager for additional product and service options. Marketers and retailers are realizing the drawback to this approach as the recent decline in the dog population has put a damper on sales. The greatest overarching opportunity for cat market advancement is therefore also the most obvious one: focus on felines. This Packaged Facts report, Cats: US Pet Market Trends and Opportunities, 2nd Edition, does just that, completely updated for the 2024 pet market environment, exploring trends and opportunities with a spotlight on cats, covering all four sectors of the industry—pet food, non-food pet supplies, veterinary services, and non-medical services. The report covers trends in product and service innovation, retailing, industry investment, and technology, along with a detailed look at cat ownership and cat owner demographics.

Scope of Report

This report examines growth and development opportunities in pet market products and services for cats, covering all four sectors of the U.S. pet industry—pet food, non-food pet supplies, the veterinary sector, and non-medical services. Topics addressed include product and service innovation, industry investment, technology, retailing, and cat ownership and cat owner demographics.

Report Methodology

The information contained in this report was obtained from primary and secondary research. Our primary research consumer analysis draws mainly on two sources:

Packaged Facts’ Surveys of Pet Owners, primarily the one conducted in January 2024. This survey has a sample of 1,600 US respondents aged 18 or over who, in aggregate, are representative of the primary demographic measures of the US Census Bureau including gender, age bracket, race/ethnicity, geographic region, household income bracket, and presence of children in the household.

MRI-Simmons booklet-based consumer surveys of a large and random sample of approximately 50,000 consumers through Winter 2023, who in aggregate represent a statistically accurate cross-section of the US population. Note that MRI-Simmons releases correspond to an approximately 12- to 14-month roll-up of survey fielding ending in the quarter indicated; the respondents and results for adjacent surveys are therefore partially overlapping, rather than mutually exclusive.

Our primary research also includes interviews with pet market experts and participation in pet industry events like the American Pet Products Association’s Global Pet Expo and Petfood Industry/Watt Publishing’s Petfood Forums. The analysis also reflects on-site examination of retail and service provider venues and online canvassing.

Secondary research includes information- and data-gathering from consumer business and trade publications, including Pet Age, Pet Business, Pet Product News International, and Petfood Industry; company profiles in trade and consumer publications; annual reports of companies in the pet market; and information culled from Packaged Facts’ extensive pet market research database and report collection. Our estimates of market size and company performance are based on reported revenues of pet product manufacturers, retailers, and pet services providers; background sales data from syndicated sales-tracking sources; surveys of independent and chain pet store retailers; government data including US Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Surveys; and figures from other market research sources.