Australian Dog Populations Statistics 2018

Getting accurate dog population statistics in Australia is hard, really hard and there are good reasons
for that. But we have managed to extrapolate values for 2017 which is close to 2018 values

The first reason that dog population values are hard to obtain is that they either rely on dog
registrations (which are a fraction of real world dog populations) or surveys of human populations
which only sample a tiny percentage of the human population and extrapolate.

The major issue is that there are very few longitudinal studies done - ones completed by the same
company, with the same test methods over several years - so there is little uniformity in data
collection. That said the data that we were able to collect and extrapolate does show some very
interesting trends:

Dog Populations in Australia 2017 (estimate)

Dog Population Australia,

By State 2018
1,600 NSW/ACT
1,400
DOG POPN (Thous)

1,200 VIC
1,000
QLD
800
600 WA
400
200 SA/NT
0
1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Year

1997 2002 2007 2009 2013 2017.3

NSW/ACT 1,338 1,381 1,209 1115 1,282 1,152
VIC 949 913 906 836 1,122 1,026
QLD 860 815 794 732 884 807
WA 324 367 357 296 333 320
SA/NT 341 367 321 329 384 363
TAS 127 129 105 97 142 119
Total 3,939 3,972 3,692 3405 4,147 3,786

References

1997 = www.animalsaustralia.org 2002 = www.petnet.com.au 2007 & 2009 = BIS Shrapnel 2013 = Galaxy Research, 2013
 The state of the dog industry in Australia

There have been many reports on the dog industry in the last few years, how people are treating
their dogs like fur-babies (humanising them) and spending much on premium food, grooming and
other services. However costs such as vet visits, pet insurance etc have sky-rocketed in the last few
years.

This combined with the psychographics including income levels of the typical dog owner in Australia
confirm that dogs are becoming an item that can only be afforded by the more dedicated or well
heeled individuals.

These two dog statistic tables confirm this information.

IN particular you will see that between 1997 and 2007 that dog populations recorded a reduction in
each measured year after 1997 (ie a drop in 2002 and then 2007). Back then, this put the dog
industry in a spin. What if dogs were falling out of favour?

Bis Shrapnel did the measurements for 2007 and 2009 and we were still seeing a reduction in dog
populations. But this was a time of the Global Financial Crisis. Just security and general income
were in great doubt across the country, so that partially explains the continual decline in dog
numbers.

So is the first substantial jump in dog populations between 2009 and 2013 a factor of Australia's
economic recovery or something else? Yes the data is reported by another company than the
previous ones but with Australia highly tied to the resources industry for GDP growth, and relatively
flat income growth levels surely economic recovery cant explain everything here.

Australian Dog ownership per 100 People (1994 to 2009)

1994 1998 2002 2005 2007 2009

Dog
Popn
(mil) 3.78 4 3.97 3.75 3.69 3.41
Dogs
per 100
people N/A 20 20 18 18 16

(Reference Biz Shrapnel)

It is the above table that puts the dog population and dog ownership statistics into clearer focus.

While the dog populations table and graphs at the start of this report and in particular linear trend
lines, suggest that dog number are either relatively steady or a slight rise for Victoria and slight
decline for NSW (the two most populous states) these are just dog population numbers in isolation.

The table immediately above shows what dog populations look like in a rising market (increasing
human populations). Even though dog populations look relatively stable with maybe a slight upturn
between 2013 and 2018 their relative populations are decreasing. Or more precisely the relative
number of people interested in owning them has declined. This is because the human population
growth rate is much higher than the dog population growth rate that dog ownership numbers (dogs
per 100 people) are in decline.

Note while the total Australian dog populations numbers (first row of the table) are in general
agreement with the first table data (that includes state level data), the stats for the Dogs per 100
people data is by the one company. And this company prides itself of data integrity even if they did
not originate the data. The main take away here is that while dog populations are relatively flat
from the mid 1990's to 2009, the 'dogs per 100 people' consistently tracks downwards from 20 to 16
per 100 people - a very big drop.

Why Australian dog populations decreased between 1995 and 2009

Dogs have always been Australians favourite big pet. Their cleverness, loyalty and companionship
surpasses many human to human relationships. It is my contention that this dip in dog ownership
was more caused by the rise of the internet and online entertainment devices taking up the time
and interest of the human population during this time.

As electronic devices started moving from the workplace and task driven to entertainment devices
for consumers, people found themselves with less time for things like dogs. If you have ever walked
a dog regularly you will know how much time and other resources they can consume.

Australian Dog populations post 2009.

The first smart phones began mid 2000's and 2007 marked a major uptake in these devices with the
first iphone release. But by 2011 most of the negative consumer sentiment to do with the economy
(GFC crisis) had passed. The increase in smart and powerful online entertainment devices had
weeded out the pretenders in dog ownership by 2011..

The smaller pool of dog owners (percentage wise) were the people more serious about their dog's
health and 'lifestyle'. This smaller group were ready to spend more money on premium pet food,
mobile groomers and dog bling (coats, collars and accessories).

The other major cause of capping the dog population is the urbanisation of our population and the
cost of housing. Smaller backyards and apartment living in particular reduces the practicality of
owning a dog.

CONCLUSION

While the major health benefits (physical and mental) of owning a dog are well documented.
Depriving dogs of off lead time with their kind to satisfy their strong pack needs, substantially
reduces the quality of life of many dogs in urban environments with time poor owners.

The relative reduction in dog ownership for the general population might be a factor of online
entertainment and housing costs and size pressures, but it might actually provide those dogs that
are owned with a better quality of life.

Report Created by http://healthydogtreats.com.au/