Quick questions: Did your dog make the holiday card? Do you or your family members own a coffee mug that says: “My dog rescued me,” “Best dog parent,” or “I paws for doggy snuggles”? Does your campus have emotional support dogs? And is your family dog walker on speed dial? Statistically speaking, you should answer “yes” to at least one of these questions.
These and countless other market nods to dogs are evidence of a relatively new family form: the multi-species family. And demographers, family sociologists, and dog lovers alike are chewing on what this means for the future of families.
To be fair, we’ve been companionate with dogs for a very long time. For centuries, people have acknowledged and appreciated the bidirectionality of the dog-human relationship. But it seems we’ve now evolved to humanizing dogs. Simply put, they are one of us.
There are now more dogs than children in the U.S. As of 2023, approximately 33 million households have children under 18, whereas at least 59.8 million households have dogs. (It should be noted that many became dog owners during the COVID pandemic.). And dogs are big business as well. According to the American Pet Products Association, we are now collectively spending $123.6 billion on our furry friends. Finally, 94% of us agree that dogs are full-fledged family members.
Generationally speaking, Millennials are most likely to have a dog. They are also the mostly likely to budget and spend on dogs, followed by Gen X’ers. On average, Millennials spend anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 annually on their dogs. Spending is largely dependent upon a dog’s age, breed, and overall health. To sociologists, Millennials represent an interesting convergence of economics, opportunity structures, and competing emotions. Millennial dog ownership is an embodiment of this mix.
The rise in dog ownership is negatively correlated with the declining birth rate in the U.S. and around the world. The U.S. birthrate is now 1.6, meaning that each woman is expected to have 1.6 children over her lifetime. Demographers tell us that we need a birthrate of 2.1 for our population to maintain itself (not accounting for things like immigration). The steepest decline in births has been among women ages 20–39, so Millennials are central to this drop-off.
The deteriorating birth rate speaks to increased economic opportunities for women, lackluster views on marriage, inflation, and perhaps a fondness for children, but an ambivalence regarding parenting. This pointedly Millennial climate has brought about a human “relationship paws.” Dogs are loyally filling in the emotional gaps.
Sociologists have suggested that dogs are the “new” or “surrogate” children. They provide unwavering companionship and support, but are a fraction of the cost. Many dogs adapt easily to work schedules. They are also loyal, agreeable, emotionally available, and committed. And while they are most prevalent in Millennial single and married-without-children stories, they are also in nuclear families, single-parent families, widow and widower households, and families of affinity. They have snuggled their way from best-friend status to a family-making agent.
Dogs are also becoming more alpha as family decision drivers. Andrea Laurent-Simpson of Southern Methodist University notes that dogs in families “have a profound impact on things like fertility considerations, the parent-child relationship, family finances, involvement of extended family members, and the household structure itself.”
The late Pope Francis recognized this. Although he was a dog lover, the pope spoke about his concerns regarding dogs as surrogate children. In 2022, he strongly connected dogs to the diminishing birth rate, noting that this was “a form of selfishness.” Continuing on, he said, “We see that some people do not want to have a child. Sometimes they have one, and that’s it, but they have dogs and cats that take the place of children.” This, he declared, “is a denial of fatherhood and motherhood and diminishes us, takes away our humanity.”
Relatedly, in 2023, Terry Gou, a candidate for the Taiwanese presidency, explicitly incentivized the dog-parenthood connection. The Taiwanese government sounded the alarm on Taiwan’s 1.11 birthrate. They currently offer government payments for having children. But Gou saw a creative — albeit perplexing — approach to the birthrate-dog conundrum. He proposed giving people a free dog if they had a child. While the idea was novel, sociologists and demographers say it would not have been enough to incentivize biological parenthood.
And if dogs are now full-fledged children, they are also becoming a part of property and well-being considerations in divorce. In 2023, a Colombian court recognized Simona the dog as a legal “daughter,” and allowed a former husband visitation rights. In 2024, the Supreme Court of British Columbia awarded shared pup custody in a divorce case. And while U.S. divorce courts have typically considered dogs as personal property, many state courts are now treating dogs like biological children, where divorcing families must consider custody, visitation, and alimony payments.
The dogs-as-family story illustrates how the sociological imagination takes us beyond ourselves, where we can consider environments, physical and emotional needs, conversations, and adaptations well beyond the confines of our homes. However, dogs also speak to our deeply personal lived experiences where they have seamlessly integrated. Careful consideration of dogs helps us to explore ways in which “family” definitions are changing to illustrate a non-linear navigation of structure, culture, emotions, and reality.
So, the next time you enjoy a puppy pet or notice a “dog lover” mug or t-shirt, remember this dogs-as-humanity picture. And a full discloser: Turbo, my 11-year-old English Springer Spaniel, snuggled with me as I wrote this piece.
Kirk was a guest blogger at UITAC Publishing. UITAC’s mission is to provide high-quality, affordable, and socially responsible online course materials.
Images Used in This Blog:
- “Brown and white short-coated dog” by Anthony Duran is licensed under the free to use Unsplash License.
