Top 10: Most Pet-Friendly Cities

TOP 10

Most Pet-Friendly Cities

In the U.S., we love our pets, with an estimated 85 million households owning at least one. The American Pet Products Association projected that 2020 will end with Americans having spent $99 billion on pet ownership.

With these figures in mind, including the break down of different expenses, WalletHub compared the 100 largest U.S. cities in terms of pet-friendliness. Three key dimensions were used, including pet budget, such as veterinary care costs, minimum pet-care provider rate per visit and dog insurance premium; pet health and wellness, which considered veterinarians per capita, pet caretakers per capita, dog-friendly shops per capita, average home square footage and more; and outdoor pet-friendliness, such as dog parks per capita, weather, walk score, etc. Leading the pack was Tampa, Fla., which received a total score of 59.83. It especially scored well in terms of outdoor pet-friendliness and pet health and wellness, though it ranked 26 in the pet budget rankings.

The top 10 pet-friendly cities, as ranked by WalletHub, are shared below:

Overall Rank Total Score

1. Tampa, Fla. 2. Austin, Texas 3. Las Vegas, Nev. 4. Orlando, Fla. 5. Seattle, Wash. 6. St. Louis, Mo. 7. Atlanta, Ga. 8. New Orleans, La. 9. Birmingham, Ala. 10. San Diego, Calif.

59.83 59.61 59.19 58.78 57.35 56.04 55.93 55.38 55.32 55.10

‘Pet Budget’ ‘Pet Health

Rank & Wellness’ Rank

26 19 32 45 46 28 30 20 36 76 11 2 17 4 9 20 12 27 22 1

‘Outdoor PetFriendliness’ Rank