Pet insurance statistics get misquoted more than most, usually in one of two ways: a North America total gets reported as a US total, or a single insurer's book gets reported as an industry average. This page keeps the two apart on purpose. Where no citable figure exists, we say so instead of estimating. Our own premium sampling is pending first quote run, so no number here is ours.
How many pets are insured in the US?
6.98 million pets were insured in the US at the end of 2025, per NAPHIA's 2026 State of the Industry Report as reported by dvm360. The same report puts the North America total at 7.6 million. Those are two different numbers for two different geographies, and conflating them is the most common error in pet insurance reporting. The gap is Canada, where NAPHIA counts 645,000 insured pets in 2025.
NAPHIA's data is the strongest available because its participants represent approximately 99 percent of written pet health insurance premium in North America, and the report is compiled by Willis Towers Watson actuaries.
| Year end | US pets insured | US gross written premium |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | not reported here | $1.6 billion |
| 2020 | 3,101,956 | $2 billion |
| 2021 | 3,970,535 | not reported here |
| 2022 | 4,849,540 | not reported here |
| 2023 | 5,676,776 | $3.9 billion |
| 2024 | 6,405,541 | $4.74 billion |
| 2025 | 6.98 million | about $5.68 billion to $5.7 billion |
Sources: NAPHIA State of the Industry Reports 2024, 2025 and 2026, via NAPHIA's Total Pets Insured data pages, AVMA, dvm360 and Insurance Journal. The 2019 premium figure comes from Insurance Journal, January 2025.
North America enrollment ran 7.03 million at the end of 2024, up 20.9 percent, and 7.6 million at the end of 2025, per NAPHIA. US enrollment grew 20.7 percent in 2024 and 9.0 percent in 2025, so the growth rate roughly halved in a single year.
What share of US pets are insured?
4.27 percent of US pets were insured in 2025, per NAPHIA's June 2026 press release, which breaks down as 5.99 percent of dogs and 2.29 percent of cats. The prior year came in at 3.9 percent of the 163.6 million US pets AVMA uses as the denominator, with dogs at 5.46 to 5.5 percent and cats at 2.0 to 2.04 percent. Read the same statistic the other way and more than 95 percent of US cats and dogs remain uninsured.
Dogs dominate the insured population and the gap has been closing slowly:
| Year | Dog share of insured US pets | Cat share |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 78.6 percent | 21.4 percent |
| 2024 | 75.6 percent | 23.5 percent |
| 2025 | 74.9 percent | 25.1 percent |
Sources: NAPHIA 2024, 2025 and 2026 State of the Industry Reports, the 2024 figures also reported by AVMA. Healthy Paws, an insurer rather than an association, put the 2025 counts at 5.23 million insured dogs and 1.75 million insured cats. That is a commercial single-source figure and should be read as one company's reading of the market.
How fast is the US pet insurance market growing?
US gross written premium grew 19.7 percent in 2025 while the insured pet count grew 9.0 percent, both from NAPHIA's 2026 State of the Industry Report. That gap is the most useful statistic in the whole set. Premium is growing at roughly twice the rate of enrollment, which means existing policies are getting more expensive rather than the growth coming mainly from new buyers. The mechanics behind that are in why pet insurance rates go up.
North America premium reached $6.2 billion in 2025, up 19.4 percent, per NAPHIA. On the prior report, US premium was $4.74 billion in 2024, up 21.4 percent, and NAPHIA put the five-year combined growth rate in written premium at 20.8 percent.
What does pet insurance cost on average?
NAPHIA puts the 2025 US average accident and illness premium at $836 a year for dogs and $435 a year for cats. Accident-only policies averaged $190 a year for dogs and $112 for cats in the same report. Those are in-force averages across the industry, not quotes.
| Policy type | 2023 (NAPHIA) | 2024 (NAPHIA) | 2025 (NAPHIA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accident and illness, dogs | $675.61 a year | $749.29 a year, $62.44 a month | $836 a year |
| Accident and illness, cats | $383 a year, $32 a month | $386.47 a year, $32.21 a month | $435 a year |
| Accident only, dogs | $204.16 a year | not reported here | $190 a year |
| Accident only, cats | not reported here | not reported here | $112 a year |
Sources: NAPHIA State of the Industry Reports 2024, 2025 and 2026. The 2023 cat figure is Triple-I reporting NAPHIA's number.
Other publishers report lower averages, and the disagreement is about method rather than accuracy. Insurify's June 2025 analysis reported a national average annual premium of $516 for dogs, ranging from $348 in Arkansas to $696 in Alaska. It put cats at $276 a year, from $156 in Arkansas to $384 in New Hampshire. Insurify also reported that accident and illness premiums rose 11 percent for dogs and 0.9 percent for cats from 2023 to 2024. Nationwide, via InsuranceNewsNet in 2026, cited roughly $81 a month for dogs and about $43 a month for cats. Healthy Paws cited approximately $60 a month for dogs and $30 a month for cats in 2025.
NAPHIA measures actual in-force premium across the industry. Comparison sites measure quoted prices for the plans their own users shop, which skew toward lower limits and higher deductibles. That is why the spread runs so wide. How the levers move a quote is worked through in what pet insurance costs.
What do pet insurance claims data show?
Skin allergies have been the most common dog claim in all fifteen years of Nationwide's claims survey, which analyzed more than 3.3 million US dog and cat claims in 2025. Intestinal upset led cat claims that year, the third consecutive year digestive issues topped the list.
NAPHIA's 2026 report ranks the top claim conditions for 2025 as gastrointestinal issues, ear infections, skin conditions, anxiety and behavioral issues, and allergies for dogs. For cats it lists GI issues, dental disease, urinary tract infections, anxiety and behavioral issues, and respiratory issues.
On payouts, Healthy Paws reported a $392.04 average reimbursement per claim across its own book in 2025, up 32.2 percent since 2020, on total claim reimbursements of $344,295,848. Healthy Paws also reported that 54 percent of insured owners said reimbursement covered at least half of a significant vet expense. All three are one insurer's figures and are not industry averages.
Average claim paid by condition, from the same Healthy Paws 2025 claims data:
| Condition | Average claim paid |
|---|---|
| Abdominal | $2,037 |
| Foreign body | $1,541 |
| Cruciate ligament | $1,056 |
| Cancer | $819 |
| Growth or mass | $795 |
| Gastritis | $354 |
| Heart | $344 |
| Liver disease | $313 |
| Pain | $167 |
| Skin | $143 |
On speed, AM Best reported in August 2026 that nearly 90 percent of pet insurance losses are paid within 12 months and over 99 percent within 24 months. Billed costs vary widely by region and clinic, so a claim average is not a price forecast for your own vet.
How many US households own a pet?
Between 86.9 million and 95 million US households own a pet, depending on which survey you use. AVMA and APPA disagree because they use different methods and different definitions of a pet-owning household, and the disagreement is real rather than an error.
AVMA's 2025 survey counts 87.3 million dogs and 76.3 million cats in the US. Those live in 56.3 million dog-owning households (42.6 percent of US households, averaging 1.6 dogs) and 43.1 million cat-owning households (32.6 percent, averaging 1.8 cats). Its 2024 survey counted 89.7 million dogs and 73.8 million cats, in 59.8 million dog-owning households (45.5 percent) and 42.1 million cat-owning households (32.1 percent).
APPA's 2025 figures, published in 2026, count 95 million households owning at least one pet, including 71 million dog-owning households (53 percent, up from 51 percent in 2024) and 53 million cat-owning households (39 percent). APPA's earlier 2023 to 2024 figure, via Triple-I, was 86.9 million households, or 66 percent. The NAIC cites 94 million pet-owning households. Do not add AVMA's dog and cat household counts together, because households with both would be counted twice.
How much do Americans spend on pets and vet care?
US pet industry spending reached $158 billion in 2025, up 3.7 percent, per APPA, which forecasts $165 billion in 2026 on projected 4.4 percent growth. The NAIC cites $152 billion for 2024, up 3 percent. APPA also found that 22 percent of owners spent less on their pets in 2025, against 12 percent in 2024.
On the veterinary side, AVMA's 2025 survey puts annual veterinary spend at $598 per dog-owning household and $529 per cat-owning household. Its 2024 survey reported an average of $214 actually paid per veterinary visit for dogs, down from $265 in 2023, and $138 for cats, down from $163. Billed costs vary widely by region and clinic.
Veterinary inflation is the pressure behind rising premiums. Veterinary services CPI has risen 55.5 percent cumulatively since 2019, a seven-year average of 6.5 percent a year, the highest of any pet spending category, per BLS data reported by PetfoodIndustry in March 2026. Overall pet inflation ran 4.3 percent year over year in March 2026 against 3.3 percent national CPI. AVMA figures reported by Insurance Journal show veterinary cost inflation of 8.24 percent from August 2023 to August 2024. The July 2022 to July 2023 year ran 9.81 percent, and July 2021 to July 2022 ran 7.3 percent. Whether that math favors buying is worked through in is pet insurance worth it.
Are pet insurance companies profitable?
AM Best put the industry's population average loss ratio at 69.1 for 2025, with individual carriers among the top ten ranging from 57.1 to 93.3. Roughly 69 cents of every premium dollar went back out as claims across the sector. AM Best reported the net combined ratio under the breakeven point in both 2024 and 2025, indicating profitable underwriting. On 2024 figures, top-insurer combined ratios split roughly evenly above and below the 100 breakeven mark.
AM Best's other August 2026 figures: US direct written premium of $5.5 billion in 2025, up 17 percent, with first-quarter 2026 premium also up 17 percent year over year. The top ten insurers account for 98 percent of pet insurance premium in the property and casualty industry, and Trupanion holds over 20 percent of the market. On a 2024 basis, AM Best via Insurance Journal put the top ten at 90 percent, and pet insurance at roughly 10 percent of inland marine premium.
AM Best's $5.5 billion is statutory direct written premium on a property and casualty basis. NAPHIA's $5.68 billion is gross written premium on an industry survey basis. They are close but not identical, and the difference is definitional, so neither corrects the other. What those ratios mean for a buyer is unpacked in how pet insurance companies make money.
Two market events shaped the same period. Nationwide non-renewed approximately 100,000 policies in spring 2024, citing veterinary cost inflation, and ManyPets exited the US market in late 2024. JAB Holdings, meanwhile, grew US direct premiums 79.9 percent year on year in 2025.
Which pet insurance statistics do not exist?
Three numbers people ask for constantly are not published by any citable source, and we will not estimate them. There is no industry-wide average claim amount: NAPHIA does not publish one, and the figures in circulation come from individual insurers' books. There is no industry-wide claim frequency in any citable source. And there is no published split of policies in force between accident-only and accident and illness: NAPHIA publishes average premiums by product type but not the share of policies in each.
The NAIC does collect a set of pet insurance market conduct ratios covering claims closed without payment, claims paid beyond 60 days, denial reasons including pre-existing condition and waiting period, and the coverage-type split. It publishes no national benchmark values for them, and it has discontinued the loss ratio from that set of ratios. So the most useful comparison data in the industry is collected and not released. That gap is why our own scoring methodology relies on policy documents and dated quotes rather than on industry aggregates.
For definitions of the terms used above, see the pet insurance glossary. For how the market got here, see the history of pet insurance in the US, and for the rules it operates under, see how pet insurance is regulated.