The pet economy is flying (and swimming and running and ... )

A huge increase in pet ownership is strengthening the pet economy like never be-fur.

Just ahead of National Pet Day, the Mastercard Economics Institute dug into the stats on pet store and vet spending around the world, sniffing out the cities with the biggest increases in pet spending and the latest trends in how pet owners buy their treats, chew toys and scratching posts.

Globally, Mastercard’s aggregated and anonymized data found that Melbourne, Australia, paw the biggest increase in pet spending as a percentage of total spending between 2019 and 2024. That finding was reinforced by the city’s own stats, with Melbourne reporting an 80% rise in dog registrations over five years.

Other international cities leading that pecking order included Santiago, Chile; the New Territories, Hong Kong; and Vancouver.

Mastercard economist Alexandra Lord said a handful of consumer trends have unleashed the growth of the pet economy. Most notably, the pandemic scaled up ownership as millions of people started working from home. Added to that, there’s a steady increase in the premiumization of pet spending as more pet owners are upgrading their pet food, grooming and other spending for their tabbies and pooches. That may be leading to more pet owners viewing their pet spending as closer to essential, not discretionary.

“People may be treating their pets more like their kids,” suggested Lord, who reported that her dog Henley — a springer spaniel-labradoodle mix — is a very good boy. “Increased spend comes with that, with more pet owners prioritizing food, pet health and longevity.”

Mastercard economists also created a specialized metric — let’s call it the U.S. Pet Lovers Index — to identify the zip codes with the biggest concentrations of pet owners. This index blended Mastercard’s data, which included pet spending per household, pet spending as a share of total spending and the percentage of cards in a zip code that had at least one pet-related transaction.

Factoring all those stats together (drumroll), Pittsburgh was the top dog on the Pet Lovers Index, followed by Hamburg, New York; Louisville, Kentucky; Saratoga Springs, New York; Depew, New York; Ventura, California; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Across the U.S., Mastercard found that pet spending overall jumped 51.3% between 2019 and 2024.

Mastercard found that brick-and-mortar stores are still the most popular option for pet owners across multiple countries. But unsurprisingly, e-commerce and subscription services have been clawing away market share for years.

For example, subscriptions have skyrocketed in the U.S., rising from a mousy 1.8% of total pet store spending in 2019 to 23.5% in 2024. In-store spending dropped from 60.4% to 46.5% during the same time.

Where does the pet economy go from here? Well, that’s hard to meow.

A big thank you to the Mastercard employees who shared photos of their pets wearing Mastercard merch from our National Pet Day celebration last year — from top, Toby Baer's Challah, Marília Lopes' Snow, and Ana Paraná's Zacarias.