Numerator: High-income households doubled pet spending since 2020
Perhaps unsurprisingly, higher-income consumers are leading the growth of the pet category.
That’s according to new data from Numerator, which reported that pet product spending surpassed $100 billion entering 2026. Higher-income households (those making over $125,000) outspend lower-income households (those earning less than $60,000) by up to 55% across health & wellness, toys and other supplies categories. From 2020 to 2025, high-income households doubled their spend to $40 billion, which accounted for 38% of total pet spending.
[READ MORE: Pets – and their owners – draw omnichannel attention from retailers]
Rising costs are widening the affordability gap, according to the report, as most owners expect higher costs for veterinary care (80%), pet food (79%), medications and treatments (78%) and supplies (74%) over the next few years. Currently, dog ownership lags among low-income families (46% vs. 56% high-income households), and more than one-third of cat owners say they prefer cats due to their lower maintenance needs.
Notably, pet spending has shifted away from traditional channels and towards online retailers. Online gained the largest share of pet spending growth from 2020 to 2025, and now commands two-fifths of spending, which Numerator says has benefited giants such as Amazon, Walmart and Costco, as well as Chewy.
New, young pet owners are leading growth for health-focused pet categories, according to Numerator. Gen Z and millennials are twice as likely as baby boomers to plan on adopting a pet in the next 12 months. Gen Z owners tend to have younger pets, providing a higher potential lifetime value to the pet category. Younger buyers are more likely to choose health-oriented brands such as Hill’s, Pro Plan, Blue and Greenies for their first pet-category purchase.
Methodology
Purchase data is based on Numerator’s Total Commerce Panel, which tracks longitudinal purchase behavior from 200,000 U.S. households across more than 50,000 retailers. Other insights were gathered from the Numerator Pet Census of 46,000 pet shoppers and a supplemental Verified Voices survey of over 2,000 pet shoppers.
