There are roughly 87.3 million pet dogs and 76.3 million pet cats in the U.S. — far closer in number than their insurance enrollment would indicate.
July 28, 2026
When it comes to pet insurance, the assumption is usually the same: it’s a dog thing. According to the 2026 NAPHIA State of the Industry Report, that assumption is backed up by the numbers, but it’s beginning to change. Dogs made up 74.9% of insured pets in the U.S. in 2025, with cats at 25.1%, down from a 76.5%/23.5% split just a year earlier.
That one-point shift might seem small, but it’s part of a trend that’s been building for years. Insured cats’ share of the market has climbed every year since 2021, from 18.3% to 25.1% in 2025. Dogs still dominate the industry, but cats are the fastest-growing segment.
The dogs-versus-cats divide becomes even more intriguing when you look at pet ownership. According to AVMA data cited in NAPHIA’s report, there are roughly 87.3 million pet dogs and 76.3 million pet cats in the U.S. — far closer in number than their insurance enrollment would indicate.
However, look at how many of each are actually insured, and the gap opens wide. NAPHIA puts the dog insurance penetration rate at 5.99%, versus just 2.29% for cats. In other words, dogs aren’t just more insured in raw share of the market — they’re insured at more than double the rate relative to how many of each animal actually exist. Cats aren’t a small niche within pet insurance; they’re a massive, largely untapped one.
Part of the reason cat insurance has lagged is a common assumption that cats, especially indoor cats, simply don’t need the same level of medical coverage dogs do. NAPHIA’s claims data, however, suggests otherwise.
Cats are naturally inclined to hide illnesses because they don’t want to appear vulnerable to predators. Unfortunately, by the time they show obvious signs that something is wrong, they may already be seriously sick.
Some of the largest individual cat claims paid out in North America in 2025 involved a $51,600 cancer treatment, a $50,000 corneal ulcer treatment, and a $45,900 liver condition claim. Kidney disease, trauma, and pneumonia also ranked among the highest-paid claims.
Glassman points out that cats often experience ureteral blockage and require a subcutaneous ureteral bypass, which involves inserting a fake ureter to take urine from the kidney to the bladder.
These surgeries cost between $15,000 to $20,000 and require lifelong upkeep. They save cat lives but require expensive implants, expensive tools in surgery and a lot of maintenance after.
Everyday conditions cats face are just as telling. NAPHIA’s claims data lists gastrointestinal issues, dental disease, urinary tract infections, anxiety and behavioral issues, respiratory problems, kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, and diabetes among the most common reasons cats are treated — a list that looks a lot more like the dog list than most owners probably assume.
The insurance gap becomes even more notable when you look at veterinary care habits. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, cat owners are far less likely than dog owners to seek routine veterinary care: 74.2% of dog owners visited a veterinarian in the past year, compared with 57.3% of cat owners, despite similar rates of having a regular vet.
Cats are also notoriously good at masking pain and illness, which means conditions can progress further before they’re caught — often turning what could have been a manageable, affordable issue into an emergency-level bill.
Together, these trends leave cat owners facing a double challenge: fewer opportunities to catch health issues early and less insurance coverage to help manage costly care.
If cost has been the hesitation, the math may actually favor cat owners. NAPHIA’s data on average annual premiums shows cat coverage running meaningfully cheaper than dog coverage across every plan type — for accident and illness plans, the U.S. average sat at $435 per year for cats versus $836 for dogs in 2025; for accident-only plans, $112 for cats versus $190 for dogs. Cats are, on average, less expensive to insure than dogs even as their claims can run into the tens of thousands of dollars when something serious happens.
That combination — lower premiums, real catastrophic risk, and historically low adoption — is part of why insurers have been growing their cat books faster than their dog books. U.S. gross written premium for cat policies grew 33.1% in 2025 alone, compared to 17.6% growth for dogs, and the number of insured cats grew more than twice as fast as the number of insured dogs year over year.
If you’ve assumed pet insurance is mostly a dog product, or that your indoor cat is low-risk enough to skip it, the data suggests it’s worth a second look. A few things worth knowing as you weigh it:
Coverage is usually cheapest and least restricted when you enroll a cat while it’s young and healthy, since pre-existing conditions typically aren’t covered once they show up. And indoor cats aren’t automatically low-risk from an insurer’s perspective — many of the priciest conditions on NAPHIA’s list, like kidney disease, diabetes, and cancer, have nothing to do with whether a cat ever goes outside, which is worth factoring in even for cats that never leave the house.
Indoor cats are just as likely to become ill as outdoor cats, and they hide signs of illness extremely well. By the time many pet owners realize something is wrong, their cat may already need emergency veterinary care.
It’s also worth being clear-eyed about what you’re actually protecting against: the type of plan you choose changes what’s covered and what isn’t, and accident-only coverage will run cheaper but won’t help with the chronic, age-related conditions that show up most often in cats as they get older. Since premiums and coverage details vary a fair amount between insurers, comparing a few cat-specific policies side by side is worth the extra few minutes before you commit to one.
Smith also recommends paying a close look at the exclusions before you buy.
It’s really easy to focus on the monthly premium and the copays and what’s covered. However, what isn’t covered, is what really matters when you eventually need to make a claim.
Dogs still make up roughly three-quarters of the insured pet market, but that number is moving, and the underlying data explains why it should keep moving. Cats get sick in ways that can cost thousands of dollars, they see the vet less often than dogs (which can let problems go longer before they’re caught), and they’re meaningfully cheaper to insure than dogs are.
The instinct to think of pet insurance as a dog product is understandable given how the market has historically looked — but for the growing share of cat owners weighing it, the numbers suggest it deserves the same serious consideration.
Anna Baluch is an insurance and finance expert at BestMoney.com. With over a decade of writing experience, she specializes in insurance, banking, mortgages, personal loans, and retirement planning. Her work has been featured in publications like Forbes, Newsweek, Fox Business, Credit Karma, Insurify, and Realtor.com. Anna holds a bachelor’s in marketing from Northwood University and an MBA from Roosevelt University. Her goal is to empower consumers to make smart financial decisions.