Australian Pet Statistics

I’ve found some Interesting facts for you about our pet keeping habits here in Australia. They certainly made me sit up and think.

Pet Population

• The estimated dog population in Australia in 2007 was a staggering 3 million 692 thousand.
• This is just under 10% of the total number of pets estimated to be kept in Australia that year.
• Fish were clear winners with over 20 million 500 thousand of them swimming around.
• Cats came in below dogs at 2 million 243 thousand (or just over 6% of the pet population.
    
• NSW and the ACT combined (sorry that’s just the way the stats were) had the majority of all dogs with 1 million 209 thousand estimated pooches calling this state and territory home. This comprised just under 33% of the estimated Australian dog population.
• Here’s how the other states and territories rated:
• VIC – 24.5% or 906 thousand dogs
• QLD – 21/5% or 794 thousand dogs
• SA and NT (sorry stats were combined) – 9.7% or 357 thousand dogs
• WA – 8.7% or 321 thousand dogs
• TAS – 2.8% or 105 thousand dogs.
   
• The number of dogs per 100 people had a national average of:
• 18 dogs per 100 people in 2007
• 18 dogs per 100 people in 2005
• 20 dogs per 100 people in 2002
• 20 dogs per 100 people in 1998.
   
• If you look at this per state for the 2007 stats:
• TAS had an average of 21 dogs per 100 people (think about it that is more than one dog for every five people)
• SA/NT had an average of 20 dogs per 100 people
• QLD had an average of 19 dogs per 100 people
• NSW/ACT and VIC had an average of 17 dogs per 100 people
• WA had an average of 16 dogs per 100 people.

Source: Australian Companion Animal Council Pet Ownership Statistics at http://www.acac.org.au/pet_care.html

Spending on our dogs

In the calendar year 2005 estimated total consumer expenditure on pet care products and services was $4.62 billion. The estimate for just dogs was $2,75 billion – and I’m sure the amount we all spend on our dogs (and other pets) has only gone up since 2005.

It appears that the amount spent per state and territory doesn’t necessarily reflect the number of dogs resident there. In 2005 the state stats for expenditure on dogs showed:

• NSW/ACT – estimated expenditure at $958 million or 34.9% of expenditure on 33% of the Australian population of dogs.
• VIC - $679 million or 24.7% of expenditure on 24.5% of the population of dogs.
• QLD - $536 million or 19.5% of expenditure on 21.5% of Australia’s dogs.
• WA - $272 million or 9.9% of expenditure on 8.7% of dogs
• SA/NT - $235 million or 8.6% of expenditure on 9.7% of dogs.
• TAS – $65 million or 2.4% of expenditure on 2.8% of dogs.

It seems to me that the dogs in WA are either more pampered or more expensive to keep – at least just on the basis of stats presented.

I figure all this means that the average dog (if there was such a thing) in Australia in 2005, 2006 was having around $745 per year spent on its care and maintenance (food, equipment, grooming, training, vets etc). Do any of you have any idea of how much per year you spend on your dog/s? I'm too scared to calculate how much my boy costs me each year on vet expenses alone.

Source: Australian Companion Animal Council – Contribution of the Pet Care Industry to the Australian Economy report at http://www.acac.org.au/pdf/pet_industry_report.pdf

Breed registrations

When it came to looking for information on the numbers of particular breeds present in Australia it wasn’t so easy.

The Australian Kennel Club has statistics for each breed and group (they split breeds up into groups such as terriers, toys, hounds etc) from 1986 to 2009 that makes quite interesting reading – for some reason there seems to have been a dip In registrations pretty much across the board in 2006. Check these stats out at http://www.ankc.org.au/National-Registration-Statistics.aspx if you are interested.

No luck on finding information on a national level from states, territories and councils. Any tips guys? But while looking I stumbled across Central Animal Records one of Australia’s microchip registries and they had some interesting stats on their website.

They have over 1 million 443 thousand animals on their registry and as of 1 July 2009 their stats showed that:

• The majority of pets tended to stray during the period 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday (hovering around a fairly constant 60.5% over 2005 through 2009).
• The next most likely time was during a weekend with about 22% of pets wandering then.
• Somewhere around 17% wander between the hours of 5pm and 9am.
• And really interesting – and have no idea why it happens – is that the most frequent breeds of dog to stray (out of animals with more than 100 animals on the registries books) were:
• 1. Pit Bull Terrier X
• 2. Siberian Husky
• 3. Alaskan Malamute
• 4. Pit Bull Terrier
• 5. Alaskan Malamute X
• 6. Siberian Husky X
• 7. Terrier
• 8. Staffordshire Bull Terrier
• 9. Pointer
• 10. Foxhound X
• 11. Staffordshire Bull Terrier X
• 12. Pointer X
• 13. Samoyed
• 14. American Pit Bull Terrier
• 15. Bull Terrier X
• 16. American Staffordshire Terrier X.

I wouldn’t put too much faith in the breed identifications or that they represent the universal population but if I owned a Siberian Husky, Alaskan Malamute, Staffie or a cross breed I’d certainly be checking my fences : )

Source: Central Animal Records – Statistics at https://www.car.com.au/statistics

Hope you found something of interest here. Do you have any interesting stats to share?