Pet Insurance Facts and Statistics

It’s All About the Numbers

We thought it would be fun to share some of the most interesting facts about pet insurance. Pet insurance is relatively new to the U.S. but it’s probably bigger than you think, in fact, the market surpassed $1.6 billion in 2019 with 2.5 million total dogs and cats insured!

10 Interesting Facts About Pet Health Insurance

1. The first pet insured in America was Lassie in 1982 (yes, that Lassie)³
2. There were 183.9 millions dogs and cats in the U.S. in 2018*
3. There were 2,517,122 million pets insured in the U.S. at the end of 2019¹
4. Only 1.4% of dogs and cats in the U.S. are insured
5. Roughly 26% of dogs and cats in the U.K. are insured²
6. Roughly 90% of dogs and cats in Sweden are insured**
7. Gross written premium in 2019 was $1.6 billion¹
8. Average annual cost of a policy in 2019 was $46/mo.¹
9. Approximately 83% of insured pets are dogs¹
10. Average CAGR in the U.S. is 22.6% since 2015¹

Fetch Your Quotes!

Bonus Content

We know pet insurance is a super-boring topic for most people (except us, we love this stuff). So you didn’t think we were all work and no play we decided to find the top 10 craziest facts about dogs and cats and share with you. Hopefully it makes you smile and, perhaps, learn a thing or two about your furry family members too!

10 Craziest Facts about Dogs and Cats

1. One pair of cats and their kittens can produce as many as 420,000 kittens in just 7 years
2. Greyhounds are the fastest dogs and can reach speeds of 45 mph, the average dog can run about half that fast
3. Glamour shot! Cats spend 30% of their waking hours grooming themselves
4. A dog’s sense of smell is 100,000 times stronger than a human
5. Cats can make about 100 different vocal sounds while dogs can only have 10
6. Your dog is about as smart as the average two year-old
7. The Saluki is the oldest known dog breed, appearing in ancient Egyptian dating back to 2100 B.C.
8. A dog can hear up to 4x further distance than humans
9. The Taco Bell Chihuahua is a rescued dog named Gidget
10. The term “dog days of summer” was coined by the ancient Greeks and Romans because the hottest days of summer coincided with the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius

Sources:

• https://www.factretriever.com/dog-facts
• NAPHIA State of the Industry Report¹
• BBB News²
• Insurance Information Institute³
• Pets by the Numbers*
• Pet Insurance for All**

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