Expenditure on pets in the United Kingdom (UK) 2005-2019
Dogs are UK households’ best friend
The United Kingdom is host to over 50 million pets, although this number signifies a considerable drop since 2013 when the pet population in the UK peaked at 73 million. The nation’s most popular pets were dogs with about a quarter of households owning a pet dog in 2018.
Pet care
With such affection towards pets also comes the need to care for them. Indeed, over the last decade, spending on veterinary services in the UK rose tremendously, particularly in 2018 when veterinary and other pet care related services reached over 5 million British pounds. British pet owners seem to be aware of the cost of keeping and maintaining pets, though. In a 2016 survey, the majority of owners named a sum over 1,000 British pounds as the estimated lifetime cost of keeping a pet.