Pet cats are part of millions of American households, and recent figures show changes in ownership, household size, enrichment, purchasing, and shelter outcomes. The estimates below identify the source and measurement period so that survey results, annual counts, and typical-year figures are not confused with one another.
Contents
- Cat ownership in the United States
- Household size and everyday cat life
- Food, supplements, and calming products
- Training, gear, travel, and celebrations
- Who owns cats
- Cats in shelters
Cat ownership in the United States
The AVMA’s 2024 U.S. pet ownership statistics reported that 32.1% of U.S. households owned at least one cat. That represented 42.2 million cat-owning households and a U.S. cat population of 73.8 million. The same AVMA report put average veterinary spending at $433 per cat-owning household per year. These are 2024 figures, and the household count is not interchangeable with a count of individual cats.
APPA reported a different set of ownership figures in its 2025 Dog & Cat Report. APPA said 49 million U.S. households owned a cat in 2025, and described cat ownership as rising 23% in 2024, from 40 million households in 2023 to 49 million in 2025. APPA’s 2026 State of the Industry reporting separately said cat ownership increased 5% year over year in 2025, reaching 39% of U.S. households, and gave a 2025 total of 53 million households.
The differences among these figures matter. The AVMA and APPA numbers come from named industry reports with different survey and reporting frameworks. They should be read as report-specific estimates rather than combined into one exact national total. APPA also reported 46.5 million U.S. households owning a cat in its 2023–2024 survey. That figure belongs to that survey period and should not be silently substituted for either the AVMA 2024 estimate or APPA’s later figures.
Household size and everyday cat life
According to the AVMA 2024 U.S. pet ownership statistics, cat-owning households averaged 1.8 cats in 2024. That average helps explain why the number of cats can be substantially higher than the number of households, while still remaining an average rather than a description of every home.
APPA’s 2025 Dog & Cat Report described a shift toward more multi-cat households between 2018 and 2024. Single-cat households fell from 64% in 2018 to 58% in 2024. Households with two cats increased by 8% over that period, while households with three or more cats increased by 36%. These are percentage changes reported by APPA, not percentage-point changes.
Cat ownership also includes increasingly deliberate routines and experiences. APPA said 48% of cat owners used some type of training method with their cat in 2024. APPA described that rate as a 41% increase from 2018. In the same report, 21% of cat owners said they hosted a holiday or birthday party for their cats in 2024, a rate APPA described as 250% higher than in 2018.
Pet-themed purchasing was also reported by APPA. In 2024, 34% of cat owners purchased pet-themed merchandise. APPA described this as an 89% increase from 2018. These measures capture owner-reported behavior during the stated reporting period; they do not indicate how frequently any individual owner made a purchase.
Food, supplements, and calming products
APPA’s 2025 Dog & Cat Report recorded several categories of cat-food purchasing in 2024. Basic food was purchased by 38% of cat owners, while 41% purchased premium food. Mixers or toppers were purchased by 19%, and 12% purchased pre- and probiotic diets.
Supplements were another substantial category. APPA said 34% of cat owners gave their cats vitamins or supplements in 2024. That rate was 6% higher than in 2023 and 70% higher than in 2018, according to APPA. The reported increases describe change in the rate, not the number of individual products used by each cat.
Calming products were measured in APPA’s 2024 Dog & Cat Report. APPA said 52% of cat owners used some type of calming product in 2024, compared with 19% in 2023, and described calming-product use as rising 174% from 2018 to 2024. APPA also reported that 24% of cat owners used calming toys in 2024 in its blog coverage of pet owners turning to CBD supplements for cat anxiety.
The figures use overlapping but not identical category definitions. “Some type of calming product” is broader than “calming toys,” so the two percentages should not be added together or treated as separate groups of owners. The 52% and 24% figures also come from differently identified APPA publications.
Training, gear, travel, and celebrations
APPA’s 2025 Dog & Cat Report found that 32% of cat owners owned a leash in 2024, 22% owned a harness, and 27% owned a non-flea collar. APPA described the leash rate as 52% higher than in 2018, the harness rate as 69% higher, and the non-flea collar rate as 50% higher.
APPA also reported a separate 2024 report-cycle set of gear figures: 32% of cat owners bought leashes, 23% bought harnesses, and 31% bought leashes in the 2024 report cycle. Because the supplied report summary repeats “bought leashes” for the third category and does not identify a different item, that repeated wording is retained as reported rather than reinterpreted. The ownership rates above and purchase rates in this paragraph measure different actions and should not be compared as though they were the same statistic.
Travel planning was part of APPA’s 2024 Dog & Cat Report. Thirty-six percent of cat owners tailored travel plans to accommodate their cats in 2024. APPA also said 22% of cat owners had taken their cats on three or more trips by plane during the 2024 report period. The travel figure refers to owners who changed plans; the flight figure refers to owners reporting at least three plane trips, so neither describes all cat owners’ travel frequency.
For seasonal spending, APPA’s 2024 Pets Add Life Holiday Gift Guide said 41% of cat owners planned to buy Christmas gifts for their cats in 2024. This is a planning measure, not a confirmed purchase count. Together with the 21% party figure and the 34% pet-themed merchandise figure, it illustrates several forms of owner engagement without proving that the same people participated in every activity.
Who owns cats
APPA’s 2025 State of the Industry reporting included generational and gender measures. Gen Z made up 20% of cat owners in 2024, which APPA described as an 18% increase from 2023. Among cat owners in 2024, 38% of Gen Z owners were men and 46% of Millennial owners were men. APPA said the share of Gen Z cat owners who were men increased 17.8% from 2023 to 2024, while the share of Millennial cat owners who were men increased 23.9%.
For pet owners overall, rather than cat owners alone, APPA reported that Millennials represented 30% in 2024, Gen X represented 25%, and Baby Boomers represented 25%. Those overall pet-owner figures should not be used as a breakdown of the cat-owning population.
APPA also reported a strong difference in calming-product use by generation: 71% of Gen Z cat owners used calming products in the 2025 State of the Industry reporting. This measure is specific to Gen Z cat owners and the 2025 reporting context; it is not the overall 52% rate APPA reported for cat owners in 2024.
The same report series included purchasing attitudes. APPA said 53% of cat owners considered brand name important when purchasing pet products in 2024. In Gen Z-focused data, 69% of cat owners said brand name was important. Since the second figure is tied to a Gen Z-focused cut, these percentages describe different populations.
Cats in shelters
Shelter statistics add a different perspective to household ownership. The ASPCA’s U.S. Animal Shelter Statistics reported that approximately 2.2 million cats were adopted from shelters in 2024. It also reported 362,000 cats returned to their owner or the field, 273,000 cats euthanized in shelters, and 369,000 cats transferred to other organizations in 2024.
The ASPCA reported that 4.2 million shelter animals were adopted in 2024, with approximately 2.2 million of those adopted animals being cats. This places the cat adoption count in the context of all shelter-animal adoptions, but it does not mean that every shelter outcome was an adoption.
The ASPCA’s Community Cats position statement said 3.2 million cats enter the animal sheltering system in a typical year. Its Closer Look at Community Cats publication said community cats make up a large percentage of cats euthanized throughout the country each year. “Typical year” is a general annual description, not a measurement limited to 2024, and the community-cat statement does not quantify that percentage.
The ASPCA’s Kitten Season release separately reported that roughly 3.2 million cats enter shelters each year and approximately 860,000 are euthanized in a typical year. Because this is a typical-year estimate and differs from the 2024 count of 273,000 cats euthanized reported in the ASPCA’s U.S. Animal Shelter Statistics, the two figures should not be combined or presented as one annual total.
Finally, an ASPCA Adopt a Shelter Cat Month release reported that 6.5 million dogs and cats entered shelters in one reported period, while only 4.8 million were adopted. The release’s wording identifies this as one reported period rather than a universal annual total. Read alongside the 2024 and typical-year figures, it shows why shelter statistics need their period and population labels attached whenever they are quoted.