Beyond the numbers: changing culture and approach to animals in Italia

There are 65 million pets in our country, for 59 million citizens. The figure that emerges from the Assalco-Zoomark 2025 report (the 2026 edition will be published on 14 May) is disconcerting: it indicates that there are more animals in Italian homes than people, and recounts a transformation that is now rooted in our culture and no longer linked to a fashion or post-pandemic effect. To really understand this change of perspective we need to go into a little more detail and look at who the animals we live with are today: the overall number remains stable, but within it everything changes. Fish and birds are falling, dogs and cats are growing, which together exceed 20 million. Cats, in particular, are close to 12 million: more than a million more than the previous year. And there is another fact that says a lot, even if it seems secondary: dogs are increasingly small. A choice that has to do with daily management, certainly, but also with costs, from vaccinations to food. And with space. Because space, today, is a decisive variable. Smaller and older families. More compact and more expensive homes. In this context, the choice of animal adapts. It is modelled on the square metres and, above all, on the times of an increasingly frenetic life and, for this reason, for those who live alone, perhaps in a three-room apartment without a lift, a cat often becomes the most natural solution.

If more and more people choose not to share a home with a partner or have children, animals end up occupying that space. An emotional space, even before the physical: 96% of owners consider them part of the family. Statistics almost only serve to confirm what emerges from everyday life. Money tells the same story, albeit from a different angle. The pet food market for dogs and cats exceeded 3.1 billion, a growth of 3.7% over the previous year and an average annual increase of close to 10% from 2021. Cat products are the driving force, accounting for more than 56% of the total. But more than the numbers, it is how one spends that is striking. Less quantity, more quality. More attention to ingredients, health, prevention. A type of consumption that until a few years ago was a niche and has now become almost the norm. Here too, the parallelism with human nutrition is obvious. Everything else is growing around food. Veterinary visits are more frequent and more sophisticated. Educators, groomers, pet sitters, boarding houses are multiplying. In cities, where the pace leaves little margin, it has become normal to rely on an organised network of services.

And it is precisely from cities that one of the most interesting signals comes. In Lucca, the figure of the urban pet manager has been introduced: a professional who deals with the coexistence of animals and urban space, including dedicated areas, services and awareness-raising. It may seem like an administrative detail, but it is not. It is a sign that the presence of animals has entered public policy. It is no longer just a private matter.

However, there remains a tension that runs through the whole sector and that is not easily resolved. Total expenditure on dogs and cats in Italia is close to 7 billion a year, with an average of over 600 euros per animal between food and care. These are not abstract figures: 23% of people renounce taking in an animal for economic reasons and 10% go so far as to part with it. The issue is also fiscal. Today, food and veterinary care have a VAT rate of 22%, as non-essential goods. A tax regime that is increasingly criticised, also in light of the role that animals have taken on in people's lives. According to a LAV study, the presence of an animal among the elderly can reduce the use of medical visits by 15%, with an estimated saving of around 4 billion for the National Health Service. This is the kind of figure that hardly enters the economic debate, but which has a real impact.

What emerges, in the end, is a solid sector, able to grow even in an uncertain economic context. But above all it is a fairly faithful mirror of how habits, priorities and forms of cohabitation are changing. Animals do not simply fill a space. They transform it. They enter routines, times, habits. They shift priorities, redefine expenses, even change the way cities are designed. And perhaps that is precisely the point. Inside those numbers is a very human need: that of relationship. Something we do not always find elsewhere and which we increasingly choose to build this way.