Veterinary Industry
Statistics2026
How many veterinary practices and veterinarians there are, what pet owners spend, who works in a vet practice, whether there is a shortage, and pay by role — every figure sourced, dated and linked to the organization that published it.
Live Veterinary Job Openings
Every other figure on this page comes from a government agency, a professional association, a peer-reviewed study or a named research firm. These numbers are ours — aggregated from employer career sites and direct postings, and updated continuously.
How many veterinary practices are in the U.S.?
There were 36,276 private veterinary practices (establishments) in the United States in 2025, up 13.5% from 31,975 in 2019, and they employed 472,869 people. The count has grown by about 2% every year, while employment grew faster (+17.4%) and average pay across all practice staff rose 43.8%, from $41,849 to $60,165.
Annual-average establishment counts, private ownership, NAICS 541940 Veterinary services. Source: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.
| Year | Practices | Change | Employment | Average annual pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 31,975 | +1.8% | 402,662 | $41,849 |
| 2020 | 32,521 | +1.7% | 408,944 | $45,565 |
| 2021 | 33,264 | +2.3% | 439,049 | $48,018 |
| 2022 | 34,007 | +2.2% | 452,565 | $51,473 |
| 2023 | 34,867 | +2.5% | 460,717 | $54,535 |
| 2024 | 35,677 | +2.3% | 467,667 | $57,538 |
| 2025 | 36,276 | +1.7% | 472,869 | $60,165 |
| State | Practices | Employment | Average annual pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 3,670 | 49,072 | $71,948 |
| Texas | 3,256 | 39,296 | $59,139 |
| Florida | 2,854 | 34,359 | $59,376 |
| New York | 1,426 | 20,796 | $72,052 |
| North Carolina | 1,340 | 18,159 | $55,039 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,309 | 18,176 | $58,937 |
| Ohio | 1,258 | 17,738 | $55,247 |
| Georgia | 1,172 | 14,923 | $53,711 |
| Virginia | 1,041 | 15,243 | $58,018 |
| Michigan | 1,018 | 13,580 | $56,517 |
Private veterinary services establishments, employment and average annual pay, 2025 (BLS QCEW). California, Texas and Florida alone hold 27% of all U.S. practices (9,780 of 36,276, calculated). Average pay covers every worker in the practice — veterinarians, technicians, assistants and front desk together — so it is a measure of the whole payroll, not of any one job.
An establishment is a single physical location, not a business — a 1,000-hospital chain counts 1,000 times, and a one-vet clinic counts once. The Census Bureau's counts run slightly lower than BLS's (34,296 employer establishments in 2023, 34,126 in the 2022 Economic Census) because the two agencies define their universes differently. Neither count includes practices with no employees, such as a relief veterinarian working alone.
Census County Business Patterns, 2023: 34,296 employer establishments. 97.3% have fewer than 50 employees (calculated), and 10–19 employees is the most common size. Practices are getting bigger, though: the AVMA reports that the share with fewer than 10 employees fell from 60.0% in 2012 to 50.5% in 2022, while the share with 20 or more rose from 11.7% to 19.6%.
Veterinary Market Size & Spending
The best-measured number is the Census Bureau's: veterinary services businesses took in $62.8 billion in 2022, up 50.7% from $41.7 billion in 2017. On the consumer side, pet owners spent $41.0 billion on vet care and products in 2025 (APPA). Commercial market-size estimates for the U.S. range from $38 billion to $75 billion, depending on how each firm draws the line.
Each firm's own figure for the year it states. Grand View's and Precedence's U.S. estimates sit below the $62.8 billion the Census Bureau actually measured in 2022 — a sign they count a narrower slice of the industry. Read the scope before citing any of them.
Pet insurance is growing fast from a small base: about 7 million U.S. pets were insured at the end of 2025 — just 4.27% of dogs and cats — and U.S. premiums reached about $5.7 billion, up 19.7% in a year.
Veterinary Jobs & Employment
BLS counted 471,540 jobs inside veterinary practices in May 2025. Veterinary technicians are the largest occupation, at 116,050 jobs, about one in four, followed closely by veterinary assistants. There are about three technicians and assistants for every veterinarian in the practice workforce.
| Occupation (SOC) | Jobs | Share of industry | Median annual pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veterinary Technologists & Technicians 29-2056 | 116,050 | 24.6% | $47,170 |
| Veterinary Assistants & Laboratory Animal Caretakers 31-9096 | 113,130 | 24.0% | $37,930 |
| Veterinarians 29-1131 | 75,160 | 15.9% | $129,990 |
| Receptionists & Information Clerks 43-4171 | 55,330 | 11.7% | $37,910 |
| Animal Caretakers 39-2021 | 33,720 | 7.2% | $32,150 |
| Customer Service Representatives 43-4051 | 18,380 | 3.9% | $39,980 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Office & Admin Support Workers 43-1011 | 11,750 | 2.5% | $58,730 |
| Office Clerks, General 43-9061 | 7,750 | 1.6% | $43,670 |
| General & Operations Managers 11-1021 | 6,110 | 1.3% | $79,700 |
| Medical & Health Services Managers 11-9111 | 4,390 | 0.9% | $80,580 |
| All occupations | 471,540 | 100% | $45,130 |
The ten largest occupations in NAICS 541940 Veterinary services, with BLS's published share of industry employment and median pay inside the industry. These are BLS occupation titles, not advertised job titles: practice managers are usually filed under medical and health services managers or general and operations managers, and kennel staff under animal caretakers. OEWS counts wage and salary jobs only, so practice owners and self-employed relief veterinarians are not in these numbers — which is why BLS counts 75,160 veterinarians in practices while the AVMA counts 133,475 veterinarians overall.
Across all occupations BLS projects 3.5% growth from 2025 to 2035. The veterinary services industry as a whole is projected to grow 8.1%, from 473,600 to 511,800 jobs, and animal caretakers 12.1% across all employers. The fastest-growing role inside vet practices is medical and health services managers (+28.6%). Projection counts include the self-employed, so they run higher than the OEWS job counts above.
AAVMC: a record 16,143 DVM students. The Class of 2028 drew 10,880 applicants for 4,278 first-year seats (2.4 per seat).
AVMA, of the 105,132 U.S. veterinarians with employment information. 71.5% work in companion-animal practice; food-animal practice is 3.1%.
| Study | Covers | Finding |
|---|---|---|
| Mars Veterinary Health (Lloyd, Aug 2023) | Companion-animal vets | 14,000–24,000 short by 2030 |
| AAVMC (Gitter & LaFayette, June 2024) | All veterinarians | 17,166 short by 2032 |
| AVMA / Brakke Consulting (2024) | All veterinarians | No overall shortage projected to 2035 |
The forecasts disagree mainly on how fast demand for pet care will grow. The Mars and AAVMC studies project a shortfall; the AVMA-commissioned Brakke forecast finds graduates of existing U.S. colleges are likely enough to meet demand to 2035. The market has cooled since 2022: Brakke reports a roughly 10% drop in the share of practices with an open veterinarian position from 2024 to 2025, and almost 7% of 2025 graduates had received no job offer. Rural gaps are not in dispute — USDA identified a record 243 veterinary shortage areas in 46 states for its loan repayment program.
Who Owns the Pets & Who Owns the Practices
There are about 163.6 million pet dogs and cats in the U.S. (AVMA, 2025): 87.3 million dogs and 76.3 million cats. Demand for care is changing shape — in 2025 practices saw visits fall about 3% while revenue rose about 2.5%, the fourth year in a row that price has carried revenue while visits declined.
Census County Business Patterns, 2023. Most practices are S-corporations; sole proprietorships fell from 3,360 to 3,024 in a single year.
| Group | Locations, as published |
|---|---|
| VCA Animal Hospitals (Mars) | 1,000+ (U.S., Canada & Japan) |
| Banfield Pet Hospital (Mars) | 1,000+ |
| NVA | 1,000 community hospitals |
| PetVet Care Centers | 400+ in 40 states |
| AmeriVet Veterinary Partners | 213 |
| Ethos Veterinary Health | 145 specialty hospitals (2023) |
| BluePearl (Mars) | 100+ specialty & ER |
Each company's own count from its website, September 2026. Counts are self-reported, rounded and not audited.
Veterinary Salaries by Role
Pay inside veterinary practices, from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (industry-specific estimates for NAICS 541940). Each row is one BLS occupation. The bar is the 25th-to-90th-percentile range; the notch is the median.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions the sourced data on this page can actually answer — nothing beyond it.
01How many veterinary practices are in the U.S.?
There were 36,276 private veterinary services establishments in the United States in 2025, according to the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, up from 31,975 in 2019 (+13.5%). The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns counted 34,296 employer establishments in 2023. An establishment is a single location, so a 1,000-hospital chain counts 1,000 times. Neither count includes practices with no employees.
02How many veterinarians are there in the U.S.?
The AVMA estimates there were 133,475 U.S. veterinarians as of December 31, 2025, of whom 68.8% are women. Of those with employment information, 75,136 (71.5%) worked in companion-animal practice, 5,909 in mixed practice, 4,144 in equine and 3,285 in food-animal practice. BLS counts 83,900 veterinarian jobs (May 2025), a narrower measure that excludes the self-employed.
03How many people work in veterinary medicine?
Private veterinary services employed 472,869 people in 2025 (BLS QCEW), up 17.4% from 402,662 in 2019. Inside veterinary practices, the largest occupation is veterinary technologists and technicians (116,050 jobs, 24.6%), followed by veterinary assistants (113,130), veterinarians (75,160) and receptionists (55,330), per BLS OEWS May 2025.
04How much do Americans spend on veterinary care?
Pet owners spent $41.0 billion on vet care and product sales in 2025, out of $158 billion in total pet industry spending, according to the American Pet Products Association; APPA projects $42.4 billion for 2026. The Census Bureau measured $62.8 billion in total receipts for veterinary services businesses in 2022, a broader figure that includes livestock and equine care.
05Are vet prices going up faster than inflation?
Yes. The BLS consumer price index for veterinarian services rose 4.6% in the year to August 2026, against 3.4% for all items, and 33.1% over the five years to August 2026, against 22.4% for all items (calculated from BLS series CUUR0000SS62053 and CUUR0000SA0).
06Is there a veterinarian shortage?
Forecasts disagree. A 2023 study for Mars Veterinary Health projects a shortage of 14,000 to 24,000 companion-animal veterinarians by 2030, and a 2024 AAVMC-commissioned study projects a shortfall of 17,166 veterinarians by 2032. An AVMA-commissioned 2024 forecast by Brakke Consulting found that graduates of existing U.S. colleges are likely enough to meet demand to 2035. Rural gaps are not in dispute: USDA identified a record 243 veterinary shortage areas in 46 states for its loan repayment program.
07Are veterinary jobs growing?
Faster than the job market overall. BLS projects employment of veterinarians and veterinary technologists and technicians to grow 9.4% from 2025 to 2035, veterinary assistants 9.1% and animal caretakers 12.1%, against 3.5% for all occupations. That works out to about 3,100 veterinarian openings, 13,400 vet tech openings and 23,200 vet assistant openings a year.
08How much do veterinarians and vet techs make?
Inside veterinary practices, BLS OEWS May 2025 puts the median veterinarian salary at $129,990, vet technologists and technicians at $47,170, veterinary assistants at $37,930 and receptionists at $37,910. New veterinarians entering companion-animal practice in 2025 averaged $140,000 in starting salary, per AVMA.
09How much debt do new veterinarians have?
The class of 2025 graduated with an average of $212,499 in veterinary school debt among those who borrowed, or $174,484 across all new graduates, with an average debt-to-income ratio of 1.4 to 1, according to AVMA's survey of graduating seniors.
10How many veterinary practices are corporate-owned?
No government source publishes corporate ownership of veterinary practices. Brakke Consulting estimates, reported by AAHA and AVMA, put corporate ownership at about 25% of general practices and 70% to 75% of specialty hospitals. Census data shows the trend indirectly: the number of veterinary firms fell 6.8% from 2017 to 2022 while establishments rose.