Though I have lived in the United states for over 8 years, I am originally from a third world country. Irrespective of the economic differences the humanization of pets is an universal concept. However, the difference in disposable income makes pet care and pet insurance an important economic driving factor in countries like the United States and United Kingdom unlike the third world nations. The increasing costs of veterinary care, pet food and pet insurance have kick started a burgeoning industry – the pet health care industry.
Even during the economic depression between 2008 and 2010, this industry continued to grow at a rapid pace. The common people who cut down their spending on all other day to day purchases and tightened their money strings, continued to pamper their beloved pets and protected them with good pet insurance. This conclusively prove that money is no object when it comes to protecting their pets. The cost of veterinary care is bound to increase as long as the demand to keep the pets alive for longer continues to grow.
Pet Insurance industry:
In the United States, since 2000, the revenue generated by pet insurance and related veterinary services has grown by 134%, compare this figure to the 22% growth for services in all other industries. This clearly highlights the influence of the pet insurance market in the United States economic data.
More than 50% of the United States households own a pet, and 76% of these pet owners visited a veterinarian at least once during 2015. This is a huge number and contributes significantly to the the GDP of the country. The most important affiliated industry is the pet insurance industry; and the average pet insurance policy for a dog is around $ 33 and that of a cat is around $24.
Safe and hound:
Not only is this industry huge, but also has a huge potential to grow. To put things in perspective, around 23% of dogs in the United Kingdom are insured, and around 30% percent of the dogs in Sweden are insured. Now compare that to the numbers of United States; where a little less than 1% of dogs and cats are insured. The absolute number is 1.4 million pets, and if the United States achieve the same penetration rate of the UK or Sweden then the corresponding number would be 42 million insured pets. This is despite ignoring the growth in the number of pets. If you learn about pet insurance in the United States then you will understand its financial importance to the country.
The following is a list of key stats about pet ownership and pet care in the United States:
- By the end of 2020, the United States pet insurance market is projected to surpass $1.2 Billion. The pet insurance market was pegged at $700 million in 2015.
- The revenue growth of the pet insurance market for the year 2016 is pegged at a whopping 14.5%.
- If the United States pet insurance market achieved the same penetration rate of United Kingdom, then it would become a $15.3 billion industry.
Even from an investor’s point of view, it makes a lot financial sense to invest in the pet insurance industry, which is bound to have a phenomenal year on year growth.
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