Many of us consider our pets to be a part of the family. How could we not…especially when they shower us with so much love and affection? All they ask for in return is that we show them just as much love and care as they do for us.
So how do we know if we care enough about our pets?
While you may think this can’t be quantified, it turns out it can. And there are certain places in the United States that care a great deal about their pets, while others don’t seem to care as much. To help illustrate this, we’ve created the infographic below to show exactly which cities and states care the most (and least) about their pets. We’ll walk you through our methodology, data and how we arrived at the scores for determining which regions care the most, and which don’t care enough about their pets.
In This Article
Most and Least Caring Cities and States Infographic
Are you curious to see how your state or city ranks? The results may surprise you. They sure surprised us. If you want to share this graphic, just copy and paste the code below.
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Our Methodology
To compile our list, we used Google Trends to find out which areas of the country search for “pet insurance” and pet care-related search terms more than others. It’s generally understood that owners who care the most about the health and well-being of their pets have a health insurance plan for them, in order to provide them with the very best treatment if they get sick or injured. The values we collected from Google Trends results for “pet insurance” and related search trends by region are calculated from 0 to 100, with 100 showing the most popularity and 0 being the least.
Key Takeaways from the Data
- Residents in Leesburg, Virginia care the most about their pets, much more than any other city in America. So if you’re a pet, Leesburg is the place to live!
- Tampa, Houston and Austin, Texas are all tied for caring the least about their pets.
- Overall, states in the Northeast care more about their pets than every other part of the country.
- States in the South appear to care the least about their pets.
- Virginia, New York and New Hampshire are the top 3 most caring states.
- Nebraska, Indiana, and Wyoming are the top 3 least caring states.
- New York was the only state to have multiple cities ranked in our top 10.
- Texas and Florida share the unfortunate honor of having the most cities in the top-10 that care the least about their pets (three cities for each state). So if you’re a pet in either of those states, you might want to relocate (hah!).
Full Scores for the Top 10 Cities and States
Which American cities and states care the most (and least) about their pets? Here’s the full list.
10 Most Caring Cities Scores
- Leesburg, VA | 100
- Dearing, KS | 57
- Boardman, OR | 33
- Dallas, TX | 27
- New York, NY | 26
- Yonkers, NY | 22
- Greensboro, NC | 19
- Seattle, WA | 19
- Philadelphia, PA | 19
- Los Angeles, CA | 18
10 Least Caring Cities Scores
- Tampa, FL | 11
- Houston, TX | 11
- Austin, TX | 11
- Orlando, FL | 10
- Miami, FL | 10
- San Antonio, TX | 10
- Nashville, | TN 9
- Indianapolis, IN | 8
- Minneapolis, MN | 8
- Atlanta, GA | 8
10 Most Caring States Scores
- Virginia | 100
- New York | 97
- New Hampshire | 92
- Massachusetts | 77
- Connecticut | 75
- Rhode Island | 75
- Alaska | 73
- Delaware | 72
- New Jersey | 71
- Colorado | 70
10 Least Caring States Scores
- Nebraska | 34
- Indiana | 33
- Wyoming | 33
- Missouri | 32
- Oklahoma | 32
- Alabama | 31
- Iowa | 30
- Louisiana | 29
- Arkansas | 24
- Mississippi | 23
If you care about your pet, we have a ton of great resources for you here at Pet News Daily.
If you’re thinking about the quality of your dog’s food, you can check out some of our resources on this topic like our guide on how to add fiber to your dog’s diet or our list of the best high fiber dog foods or if you’re worried about your dog’s upset stomach we have a guide for that as well. If you’re portioning your dog’s food you can also check out our list of the best automatic dog feeders. We even have a list of household foods dogs can and can not eat.
If you need help getting your dog more exercise we have a guide on how much exercise a dog needs, you might consider a buying a dog treadmill or checking out our guide to using a dog treadmill.
We also have a series of health and nutritional information for your dog. Our dog adult weight calculator can let you know how big your dog is likely to be, our answer to how much should my dog weight can help you determine if your dog is the ideal weight, and we even have a collection of breed-specific growth charts to help answer questions like how much do goldendoodles weigh, how much do great danes weigh, how much do golden retrievers weigh, how much do chihuahuas weigh, or how much do labradors weigh.
Monica writes for Pet News Daily and has a soft spot for all fluffy creatures, especially her ragdoll cat. She's written 100+ articles about animal care, ranging from how to train puppies to the healthiest pet snacks on the market.
