China’s pet economy purrs along: owners to spend US$116 billion on pets in 2025 as Gen Zs prefer kitties to babies and puppies
- With one-person households accounting for more than 25 per cent of the total, demand for pets as ‘spiritual companions’ has increased, Deloitte says
- The pet economy is resilient, delivering 18 per cent compound annual growth from 2019 to 2021 despite economic headwinds, according to PwC
More members of Gen Z in China are choosing to raise fur babies over children, making the pet industry one of the most resilient and fastest-growing sectors in China’s economy, according to analysts.
The country’s pet industry is set to grow by 68 per cent to 811 billion yuan (US$116 billion) by 2025, compared with 494 billion yuan this year, according to iiMedia Research.
The pet economy is also resilient, delivering 18 per cent compound annual growth from 2019 to 2021, according to a November PwC report. Coming despite economic headwinds, this growth exceeded areas such as groceries and laptop computers, for example, which grew 2 per cent and 5 per cent annually over the same period, PwC said.
With one-person households reaching 25 per cent of the total in China in 2020, the demand for pets as “spiritual companions” has increased, Deloitte said in a November white paper on China’s pet food industry.
“The changing views on family structure and increase in single population are some big motivations for younger generations turning to pets,” said Crystal Wang, financial advisory leader at Deloitte’s China Consumer Products and Retail Sector.
The pandemic played a role in the industry’s growth as well. The need for companionship and emotional support drove an increase in the adoption of pets, which are increasingly seen not as animals, but as companions, family members and even children, Wang added.