Is Australia’s Pet Boom Slowing Down? What the Latest Data Really Tells Us

Pet Ownership Remains Extremely High

The starting point for this conversation is actually very simple: Australians still love their pets — a lot.

According to the Animal Medicines Australia National Pet Ownership Survey, 73% of Australian households now own a pet. That represents about 7.7 million homes across the country. In practical terms, that means nearly three out of every four households have an animal companion somewhere in the mix — whether that’s a dog sprawled across the couch, a cat supervising from a windowsill, or a tank full of quietly fascinating fish.

The same survey estimates there are now around 31.6 million pets living in Australia, which is a pretty striking number when you realise it actually means there are more pets than people in the country.

That statistic alone tells you something important about Australian culture. Pets aren’t a niche hobby here — they’re a normal part of everyday life.

What’s especially interesting is how ownership has changed in the past few years. The share of households with pets has increased slightly from 69% in 2022 to 73% in 2025, suggesting that the pandemic-era adoption surge didn’t simply fade once lockdowns ended.

Instead, it appears to have permanently shifted the baseline upward. Millions of animals adopted during those unusual years are still happily embedded in Australian homes, and the country now seems to have settled into a new, higher level of pet ownership.

In other words, if there was a “pet boom,” it didn’t disappear. It reset the normal level of pet ownership in Australia to something noticeably higher than before.

Shelter Intake Has Actually Fallen

Another revealing indicator comes from RSPCA Australia’s annual statistics. See more comprehensive pet ownership statistics in our 2026 Australian dog statistics and trends.

The number of animals entering RSPCA shelters has dropped significantly over the past several years. In 2019–20, RSPCA facilities received 112,530 animals. By 2024–25 that number had fallen to 77,464.

That trend suggests the feared wave of surrendered “pandemic pets” never fully materialised. Shelter intake numbers reflect many factors — including stray animals, owner surrenders, and rescue capacity — but the data indicates the shelter system is currently receiving fewer animals than it did just a few years ago.

For many analysts, that points to a surprising conclusion: most households that adopted pets during the pandemic appear to have kept them.

Adoption Demand Is Cooling

The clearer signal that the pandemic pet surge is cooling doesn’t show up in overall ownership numbers. It shows up in adoption activity.

According to Companion Animal Network Australia, adoptions through rescue organisations fell by roughly 17% in 2024–25. On paper, that might sound worrying at first glance, but the broader context makes the trend far less alarming.

To understand why, it helps to remember just how unusual the pandemic years were for pet adoption. During lockdowns, shelters and rescues across Australia saw an extraordinary spike in demand. People were spending more time at home, routines had slowed down, and many households finally decided it was the right moment to bring home a dog or cat they’d been thinking about for years.

Once that wave of adoption passes, it’s almost inevitable that demand will soften.

Millions of those households that wanted a pet already adopted one during the pandemic, which naturally reduces the pool of people actively looking for a new companion today. That doesn’t mean Australians suddenly lost interest in pets — it simply means the country has already absorbed a huge number of animals into homes over a relatively short period.

From an economic perspective, what we’re seeing now looks a lot like a market returning to normal levels of demand after an extraordinary spike. Adoption rates surged to unusually high levels during the pandemic, and the current slowdown may simply reflect the system settling back into a more sustainable rhythm.

In many ways, that’s actually a healthy sign. When adoption demand becomes a little less frantic, it often means potential owners are taking more time to think through the commitment, which tends to lead to better long-term matches between pets and families.

The Rising Cost of Pet Ownership

One factor clearly influencing decisions around new pets is cost.

According to Animal Medicines Australia, the average annual cost of owning a dog in Australia is about $2,520. Meanwhile, the ADF Consumer Centre puts the average annual cost of owning a dog in Australia at $4,247. Such estimates include typical expenses such as food, veterinary care, grooming, insurance, training and other everyday costs.

At a time when many Australian households are already juggling higher mortgage repayments, rising rents, and grocery bills that seem to climb every month, the cost of pet ownership has become a much more deliberate calculation. Bringing home a new dog or cat isn’t just about the adoption fee — it’s food, vet care, flea treatments, insurance, training, grooming, and the steady stream of small expenses that add up over time.

For a lot of families, that reality isn’t leading to people giving up their pets. If anything, the data suggests the opposite. Most owners remain deeply committed to the animals already in their homes. What rising costs seem to be doing instead is changing how people make decisions about new pets.

Households may delay adopting another animal, think more carefully about breed and size, or look for ways to manage ongoing costs more efficiently. In other words, financial pressure appears to be acting more like a brake on new adoptions than a trigger for people abandoning the pets they already love.

And honestly, that’s a pretty sensible shift. Pets are long-term commitments, and taking a bit more time to think through the costs is probably healthier for both owners and animals.

If you’re already a pet owner and looking for ways to keep costs manageable without compromising your pet’s wellbeing, it’s worth checking out a couple of guides we’ve put together on smart, good-value products for everyday pet care that focus on reliable products that deliver real value, which is exactly what many pet owners are looking for right now.

So Has the Pet Boom Slowed?

In some ways, yes — but probably not in the way many people imagine.

Australia hasn’t suddenly stopped loving pets, and the data doesn’t point to any kind of collapse in ownership. In fact, quite the opposite. The country still has one of the highest pet ownership rates in the world, with nearly three-quarters of households sharing their homes with at least one animal companion. Millions of dogs and cats adopted during the pandemic years are now firmly part of their families — sleeping on couches, stealing socks, and demanding dinner right on schedule.

What has changed is the pace at which new pets are being adopted.

During the lockdown years, adoption demand surged in a way that was almost unprecedented. People were spending more time at home, routines had slowed down, and many households finally took the step they’d been considering for years: bringing home a dog or cat. Shelters and rescue groups across the country saw extraordinary demand.

That kind of surge was never going to continue forever.

Now that daily life has settled into something closer to normal — offices reopening, travel returning, and the cost of living climbing — adoption activity appears to be easing back from those extraordinary highs. Fewer households are actively looking for a new pet, not necessarily because they don’t want one, but often because they already adopted one a few years ago.

What we’re seeing isn’t a pet boom collapsing — it’s a pet boom maturing.

Australia still has millions of devoted pet owners and one of the strongest pet cultures anywhere in the world. The difference now is that the frantic adoption surge of the early 2020s has cooled, and the market is settling into something more sustainable.

For pets, that’s probably not a bad thing. A slower, more deliberate pace of adoption usually means people are bringing animals into their homes with clearer expectations and longer-term commitment.

And if you ask most pet owners — myself included — that’s exactly how it should be.