As "fur babies" become "essential family members" for more and more households, the pet economy has long evolved from a niche market to a core global consumer track. In 2024, the global pet market size exceeded the $300 billion mark for the first time, reaching approximately $305 billion—nearly 40% growth compared to 2020. This emotionally charged market is writing a growth story with strong resilience.
01 Market Pattern: Dominated by Three Regions, China Leads in Growth
The global pet market shows distinct regional differentiation, with North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific forming the core triangle, each with unique growth drivers.
1.1 North America: A Benchmark for Mature Markets
As the world’s largest pet consumption market, North America’s 2024 size reached around $150 billion, with the U.S. as the dominant player. Pet household penetration has exceeded 70%, and the average annual pet expenditure per household is over $1,200. Pet insurance has become the core growth engine: North American pet insurance premiums hit $5.152 billion in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 20.8%, with the U.S. market accounting for $4.742 billion—maintaining a growth rate of over 20% for five consecutive years. Notably, while cat insurance is smaller in scale than dog insurance, it is growing faster: U.S. cat insurance surged by 25.7% year-on-year in 2024, far outpacing the 20.7% growth of dog insurance.
1.2 Europe: A Steadily Growing Quality Market
Centered on Germany, the UK, and France, Europe’s 2024 market size was approximately $80 billion, with pet food, medical care, and insurance services as the three growth pillars. A defining feature of the European market is "quality consumption": demand for eco-friendly pet food, prescription diets, and professional medical services continues to rise, driving the market toward high-value-added segments.
1.3 Asia-Pacific: A Rapidly Emerging Potential Battleground
Asia-Pacific is catching up with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 9%, with China, Japan, and South Korea forming a growth triangle. China’s market stands out particularly: the 2024 urban pet (dog and cat) consumption market exceeded 350 billion yuan, and is expected to surpass 1 trillion yuan by 2030. Although China’s current pet household penetration rate is only 22%—far lower than the U.S.’s 70% and Australia’s over 50%—this precisely indicates enormous growth potential.
02 Core Structure: Food as the Foundation, Services as the Breakthrough
In terms of consumption structure, the global pet market has formed a mature pattern of "stable basic necessities, growing high-end services," with the share of non-food consumption continuously rising.
2.1 Pet Food: The 50% Core Market
Food remains the largest segment, accounting for about 45% of the global market and 52.8% of China’s market—reaching 158.51 billion yuan in 2024. The consumption upgrade trend is particularly evident: high-end staple foods, functional snacks (e.g., coat-nourishing, stomach-soothing formulas), and customized nutrition plans have become mainstream. The "human-pet homology" concept is driving products toward healthier and more refined transformation.
2.2 Pet Medical Care: A High-Growth Engine with 25% Share
Global pet medical expenditure accounted for over 25% of total consumption in 2024, and is expected to rise to 30% by 2030. China’s medical market reached 84.1 billion yuan in 2024, with a CAGR of 16.7%. Diagnosis and treatment, pharmaceuticals, and physical examinations form the core demand. Meanwhile, domestic vaccines are accelerating replacement with price advantages (30-50% lower than imports) and local adaptability, with penetration expected to exceed 40% in 2025.
2.3 Emerging Tracks: Explosion of Intelligence and Servitization
Smart pet products have become one of the fastest-growing segments. China’s smart pet product market exceeded 20 billion yuan in 2024, with IoT products like smart feeders and health monitoring collars rapidly gaining popularity among young groups. The CAGR of pet smart products on Douyin reached an astonishing 131.7%. Service-oriented businesses such as pet insurance and funerals also shine: China’s pet funeral market reached 4.5 billion yuan in 2024 and is projected to exceed 18 billion yuan by 2030.
03 Growth Code: Emotion-Driven + Technology-Enabled
The continuous expansion of the pet market is essentially the result of the combined effects of social structure changes and technological innovation.
3.1 Emotional Demand as the Core Driver
The rising global proportion of single-person households and aging populations have elevated pets from "functional companions" to "family members." 70.1% of Chinese pet owners keep pets because they "love them," 11.2% to "add joy to life." Post-90s and post-00s account for over 60%, while senior citizens have also become an important consumer group due to emotional companionship needs. This emotional bond drives consumption from "subsistence" to "quality," with pet owners willing to pay a premium for their pets’ health and experience.
3.2 Technology Reconstructs the Industrial Ecosystem
AI and IoT technologies are empowering the pet industry across the board: smart devices enable remote care and health monitoring, AI behavior analysis systems can identify pets’ emotional changes, and big data optimizes precision marketing and supply chain management. The rise of online channels is equally crucial: online sales account for over 60% of China’s pet consumption, and the GMV of pet categories on content e-commerce platforms like Douyin grew by 95% year-on-year, forming a new "content + community + e-commerce" ecosystem.
04 Future Outlook: Targeting $450 Billion by 2030
Looking ahead to 2025-2030, the global pet market is expected to expand continuously at a CAGR of 6.5% to 7.2%, with the overall size projected to exceed $450 billion by 2030. Future growth will present three key trends:
Deepened Structural Optimization: The share of service consumption will continue to rise, with non-food businesses such as medical care, insurance, and grooming growing far faster than the food segment—forming a pattern of "stable food volume, growing service value."
Accelerated Technology Penetration: The smart wearable device market is expected to achieve an 18% CAGR from 2023 to 2033, with scenarios like AI health management and digital diagnosis and treatment gradually becoming widespread.
Green and High-End Upgrade: Green products such as eco-friendly packaging and plant-based pet food have become key brand focuses. Meanwhile, customized and personalized services will further segment the market to meet diverse pet owners’ needs.
From insurance penetration in mature North American markets to the smart explosion in China, the growth logic of the pet economy has long transcended "pet ownership needs" themselves. When emotion becomes the hard currency of consumption, this warm market will continue to write more growth miracles.
