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What Are the Most Popular Pets in the U.S.?

Lisa Selvaggio
by Lisa Selvaggio
Published:  July 27th, 2025

Anyone who wants to bring a pet into their family has a lot of options, from dogs, cats, and reptiles to rodents, horses, birds, and fish. But what are the most popular pets in the United States? Your Service Animal was curious to find out, so they ran a study to analyze data from authoritative sources and get some answers. Here are several of the interesting things they learned.

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Dogs Take First Place, and Cats Come in Second


Experts used information from the American Pet Products Association to gather household ownership rates from 2024. They also looked at year-over-year growth data and monthly search volumes from Google. With all of that information, they calculated a Pet Popularity Score that combined ownership with interest in different types of pets.


Dogs got a score of 98.84, while cats got a score of 83.74.


51.51% of households in the U.S. have dogs, and 232,867 monthly searches show that people are interested in dogs as pets. On the other hand, around 37.11% of households have cats, and 134,200 monthly searches prove people’s interest in feline companions.


Reptiles Are Surprisingly Popular, Coming in Third Place


What you might not expect is that reptiles came in third place, with a Pet Popularity Score of 36.75.


Only 4.54% of households in the U.S. own reptiles, but this pet’s score was so high because the average monthly search volume was 53,483, showing that a lot of people have interest in keeping reptiles as pets.


How Did Other Types of Pets Rank?


After dogs, cats, and reptiles, the most popular animals were birds, freshwater and saltwater fish, horses, and small mammals like hamsters and rabbits.


What’s interesting is that 9.09% of households own fish (that’s more than reptiles), but their search volume was 18,820, reducing their overall popularity score. And even though only 1.51% of households have horses, compared to 4.54% of households with small mammals, search volume was higher for horses, boosting their popularity score.


Based on this information, it seems that people have a lot of interest in certain types of pets, and are searching for more information to learn as much as they can online, perhaps before taking the leap and bringing one of those animals home. Over time, ownership data might shift and those pets with higher search volumes might be in even more households.


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Lisa Selvaggio
Lisa Selvaggio

Lisa Selvaggio is a freelance writer and editor, and our resident cats-pert, with certifications in pet nutrition and pet first aid. She enjoys producing content that helps people understand animals better so they can give their pets a safe and happy home.

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