Counting the Bird Owners
Birds are the third most popular companion pet behind Dogs and cats. There are somewhere between 10 million to 17 million birds kept as pets in the United States. Numbers vary based on who conducts the survey but in any case, there are a large number of pet birds.
Bird owners in the United States have been profiled by two different groups. The first is the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) in their U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook published in 2002. Their survey was conducted by a company called NFQ Research who mailed out questionnaires to 80,000 households. These households were selected to be representative of all U.S. households. A total of 54,240 responses were received. Based on U.S. Census geographic data, the AVMA extrapolates totals for the entire United States. The AVMA has previous data from surveys conducted in 1991 and 1996 to use as comparisons to the 2001 survey.
The second profiling was done by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA) and is published in the 2003/2004 APPMA National Pet Owners Survey (based on data collected from surveys in early 2002). The APPMA has been conducting surveys of pet owners every two years since they conducted the first survey in 1988. The 2002 survey was conducted by Ipsos-NPD, Inc. Initially, 45,000 two-page interviews were mailed out to Ipsos-NPD's HTI (Home Testing Institute) Consumer Panel to identify pet owners. 29,748 responses were received with 18,355 responding panel members being pet owners. Next 3,465 pet-owning panel members were mailed a detailed 12-page questionnaire that was specific to their type of pet (Dog, cat, bird, fish, etc). Specifically 470 bird owners were mailed a questionnaire and 290 completed returns were received. Ipsos-NPD's panel is balanced both geographically and demographically to represent the U.S population. According to them:
"Unlike other researchers, who select a panel balanced on geographic Census targets, the HTI panel is balanced by household size information. This is because research has shown that these factors, household size information, are more significant in determining marketplace behavior than are geographic factors. Ipsos-NPD has also developed a special panel balancing system. Demographic groups that are less likely to return the surveys are over-represented in outgoing samples and demographic groups that tend to over-return are under-represented. This provides a balanced return sample. (APPMA, 2002, pg. xi)"
Using the AVMA data, along with previous surveys in 1991 and 1996, the following conclusions have been drawn: Birds are the third most popular companion pet owned, behind Dogs and cats. 4.6% of all households own at least one bird, with households in the Pacific region having the highest concentration, averaging 6.3% of households.
According to the AVMA, in 2001, there were over 10 million birds owned. This varies dramatically from the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA) 2003-2004 survey that said that in 2002, there were 17.3 million birds owned by 6.7 million households.
One interesting note is that both surveys agree that, for some unknown reason total bird ownership dropped in 2001/2002 as shown in the graph below. According to the AVMA, total bird ownership dropped from 12.6 million in 1996 to 10.1 million and the APPMA reports a drop from 18.7 million in 2000 to 17.3 million in 2002. This is not consistent with other pet ownership (dogs, cats and horses).
According to the AVMA, one reason for the downward trend in total birds owned is the fact that the percentage of birds owned per household has gone down almost 30% from an average of 2.7 birds per bird-owning household in 1996 to 2.1 birds in 2001.
For more statistics on bird ownership including graphs and charts, visit Parrot Ownership
Larry Swanson is webmaster of several sites including http://www.parrots.com
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