While families still make up the majority of pet parents in the United States, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, the gap between families and singles has narrowed greatly over the past 5 years. From 2006 to 2011 the percentage of singles with pets (primarily dogs) increased almost 17% from 46.9% to 54.7% while the percentage of families with pets grew just 1.37% from 65.5 to 66.6%.
The data was parsed even further to show that:
-Pet parenting among divorced, widowed and separated adults grew by
17.7 percent, from 51.3 to 60.4 percent.
-The number of single men living alone with pets increased by 27.7 percent, from
34.3 to 43.8 percent.
-The number of single women living alone with pets increased by 22 percent,
from 46.8 to 57.1 percent.
Now we don’t know what this means about the singles scene (heck it’s been a long time since we were single) – but we did have dogs before we had spouses. Maybe it just means that the single community is wising up to the benefits of having a pet in their life? Maybe it means that they understand that no matter what happens in the topsy turvy world of human relationships a pet loves you forever? But the cynic says, maybe after seeing the attention a cute dog can get they think that having a pet is a great way to find that special human.
What do you think? How does your relationship with your pet compare to your relationships with humans? Even that special human in your life? Are you single and have decided that your dog or cat is better than any human you could ever meet? Come on, you can be honest here – we won’t tell them what you said.
Thanks for reading!