APHIS Releases Backyard Animal Keeping 2024 National and City Reports
APHIS' National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) has released two reports from the Backyard Animal Keeping 2024 Study:
- A National Study of Poultry, Pig, Goat, and Rabbit Health and Management
- Urban Ownership of Chickens, Pigs, Goats, and Rabbits in Two U.S. Cities
The NAHMS Backyard Animal Keeping 2024 Study included a national survey conducted across all 50 States, as well as focused city surveys in Miami, FL, and Denver, CO. The study explored ownership of backyard poultry, pigs, goats, and rabbits. Understanding backyard animal ownership is essential for developing and delivering effective disease-prevention resources and ensuring preparedness for potential disease outbreaks.
The study collected data on:
- The percentage of adults in urban and non-urban areas of the United States who own poultry, pigs, goats, and rabbits.
- Animal management practices, including the sources of information owners use to learn about animal health, access to veterinary care, length of animal ownership, and biosecurity practices.
- Opinions about backyard and urban ownership of chickens.
- Contact with live poultry and intentions to own the species of interest in the future among people who do not currently own them.
- Animal ownership and related opinions in two cities originally surveyed in 2012 to identify changes in animal ownership and beliefs between 2012 and 2024.
Highlights From A National Study of Poultry, Pig, Goat, and Rabbit Health and Management:
- Adults were asked whether they kept poultry at their home, property, or at a community coop or kept pigs, goats, or rabbits at their home or property. Overall, 6.7 percent of U.S. adults reported keeping poultry, 1.5 percent kept pigs, 1.3 percent kept goats, and 2.8 percent kept rabbits. In total, nearly 10 percent (9.6 percent) of adults kept at least one of these four animal types.
- Adults who kept poultry, pigs, or goats were asked about several biosecurity practices, including hand washing, use of hand sanitizer, and use of dedicated shoes or shoe covers. At least 65 percent of adults reported that they sometimes or always required these biosecurity practices for people entering areas where these three animal types were kept.
Highlights From Urban Ownership of Chickens, Pigs, Goats, and Rabbits in Two U.S. Cities:
- In Denver, 2.4 percent of adults owned chickens, and in Miami, 2.5 percent of adults owned chickens. By comparison, a previous NAHMS study conducted in 2012 found that 0.7 percent of adults in Denver owned chickens and 1.7 percent of adults in Miami owned chickens.
- Across both cities, a higher percentage of adults (2.5 percent) owned chickens than any of the other three species (0.5 percent of adults owned pigs, 0.4 percent owned goats, and 1.3 percent owned rabbits).
Learn More
For more information about the Backyard Animal Keeping 2024 Study and other NAHMS studies, visit National Animal Health Monitoring System.