US Veterinary Industry Statistics

Working numbers for anyone sizing, selling into, or writing about the US veterinary market. Figures come from the AVMA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the American Pet Products Association, with our own practice-level database filling the gaps those sources leave. Cite freely with a link back to this page. Last reviewed September 2026.

The headline figures at a glance:

Metric	Figure	Source
US veterinarians	~130,000	AVMA
US veterinary practice locations	~32,000	Vettica database
New DVM graduates per year	~4,000	AAVMC
Corporate-owned share of clinics	Varies by definition	Public ownership disclosures
Total US pet spending	$158B in 2025	APPA
Median veterinarian pay	$130,100 in 2025	BLS
US households with a pet	95 million in 2025	APPA

How many veterinarians are there in the US?

The AVMA counts roughly 130,000 US veterinarians, and state licensing boards, which is where our data starts, show a comparable population once multi-state licenses are deduplicated. About two thirds work in clinical practice, with the balance in industry, government, academia, and public health. The BLS projects veterinarian employment to grow far faster than the average occupation over the next decade, driven by pet ownership that never reverted after the pandemic surge.

Supply remains the industry's binding constraint. US veterinary schools graduate roughly 4,000 new DVMs a year against a market that keeps posting more openings than that, which is why recruiting stays a seller's market for candidates.

How many veterinary practices are there?

The AVMA counts more than 30,000 veterinary practices; our practice-level database tracks about 32,000 US locations once mobile and house-call practices are included. The structure skews small: one-to-three-doctor clinics are the majority of locations, while multi-doctor hospitals and referral centers concentrate the doctor headcount. That gap between location count and doctor count is why territory math built on "number of practices" misleads; see practice analytics for how we cut it.

Practice counts also move less than people assume. Openings and closings mostly offset each other nationally, so the total drifts slowly while the composition churns underneath: independents sell to consolidators, solo doctors retire without successors, and new builds cluster in the suburban corridors where pet-owning households are growing. If you sized a territory three years ago, the count is probably close and the ownership map is probably wrong.

What share of veterinary practices are corporate-owned?

Corporate ownership is material but difficult to express as one current national percentage because sources use different definitions of clinics, hospitals, and parent groups. For anyone selling into the market, ownership remains an important field on a practice record because it helps identify whether purchasing happens at the clinic or at a headquarters.

Segment and geography matter. Emergency, specialty, general practice, rural mixed, and food-animal markets have different ownership patterns. Use current practice-level ownership disclosures for territory planning instead of applying one national estimate to every segment.

How much do Americans spend on veterinary care?

The American Pet Products Association reported $158 billion in US pet industry expenditures for 2025 and 95 million US households owning a pet. Per-practice economics vary by model, so those national totals should not be treated as a revenue estimate for a specific clinic or territory.

How big is the veterinary equipment and disposables market?

Published estimates for the veterinary equipment and disposables segment disagree because vendors draw the category line differently. Some counts include imaging and anesthesia capital equipment, some fold in diagnostic consumables, and some stop at surgical disposables. Compare only reports that define the same products, geography, and period.

The more useful sizing for a US equipment vendor is bottom-up: 32,000 practice locations, segmented by the doctor counts and specialty mix that predict what a clinic can buy. A three-doctor general practice and a referral surgery center have entirely different capital budgets. We built the equipment vendor page around exactly that math.

How are veterinary specialties distributed?

Companion animal practice dominates: the large majority of clinical veterinarians work predominantly or exclusively with pets. Equine, food animal, and mixed practice make up most of the remainder and cluster geographically in ways national statistics hide entirely. Kentucky, Florida, Texas, and California carry outsized equine populations; food animal practice follows cattle, swine, and poultry geography. Board-certified specialists (surgery, internal medicine, dermatology, oncology, and the other colleges) are a small fraction of the profession, concentrated in referral hospitals and universities. Browse our specialty pages for how we classify all of it.

What do veterinarians and vet techs earn?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 2025 median pay of $130,100 for veterinarians and $47,380 for veterinary technologists and technicians. Those national occupation medians are reference points, not forecasts for a specific employer, specialty, or market.

Sources and methods

Population and practice figures use AVMA publications and state licensing board records aggregated in the Vettica database. Employment projections and pay use the linked Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook pages. Spending and household ownership use the linked American Pet Products Association release. Corporate ownership fields are derived from public company and practice disclosures; the page does not present a national consolidation percentage. For practice-level versions of any number on this page, scoped to a state, metro, or specialty, ask us directly.