NAHMS Studies on Small-Scale Operations
NAHMS conducted its first Backyard Animal Keeping Study in 2024. Results from this study produced national estimates on the percentage of adults who kept poultry, pigs, goats, or rabbits.
The NAHMS Backyard Animal Keeping 2024 study was designed to provide a snapshot of current animal management and biosecurity practices for adults who kept poultry, pigs, goats, or rabbits. All participants were asked to answer opinion questions related to backyard poultry as well as questions about their intention to own any of the four species of interest in the future if they did not already keep that species. Participants without poultry were asked if they had any contact with live poultry.
A second survey was conducted in Denver, Colorado, and Miami, Florida, to estimate the percentage of adults in urban areas who kept chickens, pigs, goats, or rabbits. The survey also examined participants’ beliefs about chicken ownership and changes in those beliefs between 2012 and 2024.
This study will help improve our knowledge about backyard animal keeping and improve our understanding about risks for foreign animal disease transmission. Results from the National and City studies are forthcoming, as well as an informational sheet on poultry and biosecurity.
Results from the study can be found below. NAHMS also conducted a study focusing on small-scale operations in 2011.