Cats are part of daily life for millions of U.S. households. The latest AVMA figures put cat ownership at 42.2 million households and the U.S. cat population at 73.8 million in 2024, while shelter and public-health data show how ownership connects with adoption, veterinary care, and community-cat programs.
Contents
- Cat ownership in the United States
- Veterinary visits and spending
- How households view their cats
- Cat ownership by education
- Shelter and rescue outcomes
- Community cats and public health
Cat ownership in the United States
The AVMA U.S. pet ownership statistics report that 32.1% of U.S. households owned a cat in 2024. That represented 42.2 million households. These are household measures, so they describe homes with cats rather than the percentage of individual people who own one.
Those households averaged 1.8 cats each in 2024. The resulting U.S. cat population was 73.8 million. Together, the household and population figures provide two useful views of cat life in the country: how widespread ownership is and how many animals live in those homes.
The AVMA’s earlier 2017–2018 Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook records a different measurement period. In 2016, 33,399,582 U.S. households owned cats at some time during the year, and those households owned 62,036,562 cats at some time during the year. The 2016 figures should be read as historical sourcebook measures, not as a directly verified estimate for 2024.
| Measure | 2016 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. households owning cats | 33,399,582 households | 42.2 million households |
| Cat population | 62,036,562 cats | 73.8 million cats |
| Average cats per owning household | Not supplied for this comparison | 1.8 cats |
The CDC Cats page gives another household-level perspective: nearly 40 million U.S. households have pet cats. Because the CDC and AVMA figures come from different sources and reporting frames, they should be kept as separate published estimates rather than combined into a single count.
Veterinary visits and spending
The 2016 AVMA sourcebook shows that veterinary use was not universal among cat-owning households. Of those households, 45.7% reported no veterinary visits during the year, while 54.3% reported at least one. The distribution was 21.9% with one visit, 16.3% with two visits, 5.8% with three visits, and 10.3% with four or more visits.
In total, 18,137,753 cat-owning households visited a veterinarian in 2016. Cats in those households accounted for 34,320,351 cats that visited a veterinarian and 43,196,446 total veterinary visits. The sourcebook reports averages of 1.3 visits per cat-owning household, 0.7 visits per pet, 2.4 visits per client household, and 1.3 visits per client pet. These averages use different denominators, so each describes a different part of the veterinary-care population.
The same historical sourcebook reports $6,074,973,031 in total cat veterinary expenditures in 2016. Cat-owning households spent $182 per household on veterinary care, while households that were veterinary clients spent $335. At the pet level, owners spent $98 per cat, and client pets generated $177 in veterinary spending. A cat veterinary visit averaged $141.
Reported spending varied substantially by household. Some veterinary expenditures were reported by 53.1% of cat-owning households, while 46.9% reported none. Among all cat-owning households, 3.1% spent less than $50, 9.3% spent $50 to $99, 13.4% spent $100 to $199, 16.9% spent $200 to $499, 6.5% spent $500 to $999, and 3.8% spent $1,000 or more on veterinary care in 2016.
The latest AVMA ownership statistics report average veterinary spending of $433 per cat-owning household per year in 2024. This 2024 measure and the 2016 sourcebook figures use different years and should not be treated as a like-for-like trend calculation without additional methodological information.
How households view their cats
The 2016 AVMA sourcebook also measured how cat owners described their animals. A large majority, 76.5%, considered their cat or cats to be family members. Another 20.1% described them as companions, while 3.5% described them as property.
The family-member response varied across household-income groups, although every supplied group had a majority selecting that description. The reported shares were 79.5% for households earning under $20,000; 77.2% for households earning $20,000 to $34,999; 79.8% for households earning $35,000 to $54,999; 74.8% for households earning $55,000 to $84,999; and 73.1% for households earning $85,000 and over.
For the highest income group, the sourcebook also reported that 23.4% described their cats as companions. These categories reflect survey responses about the role of cats in the household. They are not measures of attachment, care quality, or veterinary behavior.
Cat ownership by education
The historical AVMA sourcebook reported different cat-ownership rates by the education level of the respondent. Households where the respondent had less than a high school education had a 27.3% cat-ownership rate in 2016. The rate was also 27.3% where the respondent had a high school diploma or GED.
The reported rate was 27.8% for respondents with some college but no degree and 30.0% for respondents with an associate’s degree. It was 25.3% for respondents with a bachelor’s degree, 21.7% for respondents with a master’s degree, and 17.3% for respondents with a Ph.D.
| Respondent education | Cat ownership rate, 2016 |
|---|---|
| Less than high school | 27.3% |
| High school diploma or GED | 27.3% |
| Some college, no degree | 27.8% |
| Associate’s degree | 30.0% |
| Bachelor’s degree | 25.3% |
| Master’s degree | 21.7% |
| Ph.D. | 17.3% |
These percentages describe the sourcebook’s 2016 respondent-education groups. They do not establish why the rates differed, and they should not be used to predict ownership for a particular household.
Shelter and rescue outcomes
The ASPCA U.S. Animal Shelter Statistics report that 5.8 million dogs and cats entered shelters and rescues nationwide in 2024. Across those animals, 4.2 million were adopted and about 607,000 were euthanized. Stray animals made up 60% of dogs and cats entering shelters, while owner surrenders made up 29%.
The ASPCA reports a shelter euthanasia rate of 8% in 2024, down from 13% in 2019. That comparison covers the two stated years and is presented as a reported rate change, not as a calculation of the number of cats affected.
Cat-specific 2024 outcomes included 2.2 million cats adopted from shelters, 362,000 cats returned to their owner or the field, 273,000 cats euthanized in shelters, and 369,000 cats transferred to other organizations. These outcomes describe different pathways, so they should not be added together as though they were mutually exclusive parts of one complete intake total.
The broader intake figures combine dogs and cats, whereas the four outcome figures above are cat-specific. Keeping that geography and animal scope visible matters when interpreting the numbers: a nationwide total for both species is not interchangeable with a nationwide cat-only outcome.
Community cats and public health
The ASPCA’s A Closer Look at Community Cats estimates that community cats in the United States number in the tens of millions. “Tens of millions” is an estimate expressed as a broad range rather than a precise population count, so it should not be converted into an exact total.
The ASPCA says that the target for trap-neuter-return-monitor (TNRM) programs is to sterilize at least 75% of cats in a group within six months in order to stabilize a community-cat population. This is a program target, not a measurement of the share of community cats that had been sterilized nationwide.
The CDC Cats page says that nearly 40 million U.S. households have pet cats. It also reports that about 20% to 80% of reported cat bites and scratches become infected. That wide range applies to reported bites and scratches as described by the CDC, not to every interaction with a cat.
The CDC lists 16 diseases that can be spread by cats on its Cats page. The count identifies the diseases listed on that page; it does not indicate that every cat carries a disease or that every contact creates the same level of risk. Together, the CDC figures place cat ownership alongside the practical health information that households, shelters, and community-cat programs may need when caring for animals.