Sometime over the past couple decades man’s best friend took over the American household.
You know - that statement does make me think of this Seinfeld comedy bit:
I'm a bit of a data junkie. When I see something that leads me to formulate a random (and sometimes hilarious) theory on society - I can’t help but hunt for data to see if it holds weight.
I just did this with pet ownership, especially dog ownership.
65% of U.S. households, or roughly 79.7 million families own a pet, according to the 2015-2016 National Pet Owners Survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association (APPA). This is up from 56% of U.S. households in 1988, when the survey was introduced. Data Source
So we can see a high majority of households have a pet. However, we need to dig into some detail to chase my theory.
Turns out I’m allergic to most dogs - I’m still cool with dogs, just allergic.
However – being a single guy who is allergic to dogs you quickly realize something while out in the dating world…..
At first I thought this was all in my head. So that’s when I started digging into the research.
As we saw earlier 79.7 million households own a pet, but how is that broken down.
Looking at the table we see 54.4 million households own a dog. That equates to 68% of all pet owners.
Hmmm…is their a chance my theory hold weight?
If 79.7 millions equals 65% of American households, then we roughly have 123 million households.
Of those households 54.4 million own a dog, so 54.4 divided by 123 =
Granted that is still a lot. Nearly half of America owns a dog.
Well , no. It likely did not
But for your possible entertainment - see the below conversation that often takes place on my dates
Her: “So do you have any pets?
Me: “No - I had a cat growing up, but I’m actually allergic to most dogs”
Which is followed by this reaction
Image Source
The Joys of Dating..hahaha.
Regards,
Mitchell J
For the occasional funny rant and a bunch of financial tips:
