The US pet insurance industry wrote more than $4.7 billion in gross premium in 2024, up from $3.9 billion the year before, according to the North American Pet Health Insurance Association’s annual State of the Industry report.
Across North America the total exceeded $5.2 billion, a 20.8% increase.
The Numbers That Matter
Pets insured. A record 7.03 million pets were covered across North America at year-end 2024, up 20.9% year over year. In the US specifically, 6.4 million pets were insured, against 5.7 million a year earlier.
Penetration. This is the figure the industry does not lead with. US market penetration reached just 3.9% of an estimated 163.6 million pets — 5.5% of dogs and 2.0% of cats.
Average premiums. NAPHIA’s 2025 data puts the average annual accident-and-illness premium at $749 for dogs and $386 for cats — roughly $62 and $32 a month.
What a Decade of Double-Digit Growth Actually Means
Pet insurance has grown at double-digit rates for ten consecutive years, and it is still a rounding error against the number of animals in American households. Both things are true at once.
Two forces explain the growth:
Veterinary cost inflation. Advanced diagnostics and specialist referrals have moved into routine practice. An MRI, a cruciate repair or an oncology course now runs into thousands of dollars — figures that did not exist in general practice twenty years ago.
Employer benefits. Pet insurance has become a common voluntary benefit, which puts it in front of people who would never have shopped for it directly.
What explains the low penetration is simpler: most owners only consider insurance after something has already gone wrong, and by then the condition is pre-existing and permanently excluded.
The Structural Problem Buyers Keep Hitting
Pet insurance is not health insurance. There is no equivalent of guaranteed issue, and there is no annual open enrollment where prior conditions get forgiven.
Whatever your animal has been diagnosed with before the policy starts — and in most cases, whatever it has shown symptoms of — is excluded for the life of the policy. Some insurers will review and cover a resolved condition after a symptom-free period. Many will not.
That single mechanic decides most of the value of a pet policy, and it means the decision is time-sensitive in a way that most insurance is not.
How to Buy It Sensibly
- Enrol young. This is the whole game. A policy taken out at eight weeks has almost nothing to exclude. A policy taken out at eight years is mostly exclusions.
- Buy accident-and-illness, not accident-only. Accident-only is cheap because it excludes the expensive category — cancer, diabetes, chronic conditions.
- Check whether exam fees are covered. They often are not in the base plan, and they appear at every single visit. The rider is usually worth it.
- Read the annual and per-condition limits. An “unlimited” annual limit with a $2,000 per-condition cap is not unlimited in any way that helps with a cancer diagnosis.
- Expect premiums to rise with age. Almost every insurer re-rates by age bracket. Budget for the policy costing significantly more at year eight than at year one.
For a healthy young animal, the honest alternative is a dedicated savings account. For anything with breed-linked risk — large-breed joints, brachycephalic airways, deep-chested bloat risk — the maths favours insurance early.
Sources: NAPHIA, “North American Pet Health Insurance Industry Market Reaches $5.2B in Written Premium”; AVMA, “US pet insurance industry surpasses $4.7B in 2024”
See how the major insurers compare in our pet insurance comparison.