Pet-owning consumer units (CUs, or households, essentially) in the U.S. spent US$45.5 billion on pet food in 2023, an increase of US$6.81 billion or 17.6% over 2022 pet food spending. The data, recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), has been compiled and reported by John Gibbons, aka the Pet Business Professor.
Note that “recently” is a relative term when it comes to federal government data releases; in this case, the full spending report for 2023 just came out in September 2024. Not exactly timely, but at least it’s more accurate than estimates released shortly after the end of that year would have been.
Also note that spending is not necessarily the same as sales; for example, Packaged Facts said dog and cat food sales in the U.S. reached US$51 billion in 2023, and that doesn’t include pet treats. (Presumably, the BLS data on spending includes all consumable pet products.)
Pet food spending by income group: Lower earners do their share
With those considerations in mind, let’s dive a little deeper into the spending data. For U.S. pet care overall, spending reached US$117.6 billion in 2023, up US$14.89 billion or 14.5%. Veterinary services and products registered the largest increase, 20%, among the industry segments, while ranking second behind pet food in spending at US$35.66 billion. Pets and supplies were up 4.9%, reaching US$23.02 billion, while pet services rose 8.5% to US$13.42 billion.
Unlike in recent years, when the highest-income CUs had the highest increases in pet food spending, lower-income groups had the greatest increases in 2023, rather surprisingly. Also, all income groups registered spending increases, the lowest being 4.6%.
CUs earning less than US$30,000 annually spent an average of US$230.58 on pet food, a whopping 45.7% more than in 2022. That added up to a total of US$6.63 billion for this group, which comprises 21.3% of CUs in the country. The only income group with a higher increase in pet food spending, 22.5%, was CUs earning US$100,000 to less than US$150,000 a year. That’s not surprising. These pet owners, 16.6% of CUs, spent an average of US$399.09 in 2023 and a total of US$8.38 billion.
In between those and the lowest earners, CUs earning US$30,000 to less than US$70,000 grew their pet food spending by 12.1%, to an average of US$291.97 and a total of $11.1 billion. That group total is larger than that for the people earning less than US$30,000 because these pet owners make up 28.3% of CUs.
CUs earning US$70,000 to less than US$100,000, 14.1% of households, spent an average of US316.88 on pet food in 2023, up 4.6% for a total of US$6.44 billion. Finally, CUs earning more than US$150,000 spent an average of US$490.64, 7.1% more than in 2022, for a total of US$12.95 billion. They represent 19.8% of CUs.
Spending by age group also provides surprises
Among age groups, changes in spending were a mix of increases and decreases, and as with the income groups, the increases reflected surprises. Specifically, CUs age 25-34 spent 46.5% more on pet food, those under 25 spent 37% more, those 65-75 spent 31.4% more and those older than 75% spent 53.2% more. Some of the group sizes are smaller, at 15.7%, 4.5%, 16% and 11.4%, respectively, in terms of shares of CUs; but the youngest and oldest age groups registering higher spending increases does not follow traditional patterns.
More typical were spending changes among 35-44-year-olds (17.5% of CUs) and 65-to-74-year-olds (16% of CUs), up 16.6% and 31.4%, respectively. Meanwhile, CUs age 55 to 64 (17.8% of CUs) spent 2.2% less and those age 45 to 54 (16.9% of CUs) spent 4.9% less. In terms of spending amounts, 65-to74-year-olds led the way with an average of US$413.49 and a total of US$9 billion, followed by 35-to-44-year-olds with an average of US$352.55 and a total of US$8.43 billion. Even the smallest group, CUs under 25, spent an average of US$271.36 on pet food in 2023.
Gibbon’s analysis also includes interesting data on each demographic group’s changes in number and income.
Pet food inflation at least a partial contributor
While any increase in spending is positive, it’s important to remember that pet food inflation on a monthly basis was still high for at least the first half of 2023. And though monthly pet food price increases started to come down that summer, at the end of the year, prices were still nearly 22% higher than the end of 2021 and almost 23% more than the end of 2019, pre-pandemic. Those longer-term increases have largely remained the same through 2024, meaning that any pet food spending increases this year will also be partly due to inflation.
We’ll just have to wait for fall 2025 to find out!
