National Horse Statistics Highlights

There are 9.2 million horses in the United States.

4.6 million Americans are involved in the industry as horse owners, service providers, employees and volunteers. Tens of millions more participate as spectators.

2 million people own horses in the United States.

The horse industry has a direct economic effect on the U.S. of $39 billion annually.

The industry has a $102 billion impact on the U.S. economy when the multiplier effect of spending by industry suppliers and employees is taken into account. Including off-site spending of spectators would result in an even higher figure.

The industry directly provides 460,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs.

Spending by suppliers and employees generates additional jobs for a total employment impact of 1.4 million FTE jobs.

The horse industry pays $1.9 billion in taxes to all levels of government.

Approximately 34% of horse owners have a household income of less than $50,000 and 28% have an annual income of over $100,000. 46% of horse owners have an income of between $25,000 to $75,000.

Over 70% of horse owners live in communities of 50,000 or less.

There are horses in every state. Forty-five states have at least 20,000 horses each.

California Horse Economic Statistics

The horse industry is a very large and important part of our state, national, and local economies, involving agriculture, business, sport, racing, entertainment and recreation. The three top states with the largest amount of revenue from goods and services produced are first, California, then Florida and Texas. However, California exceeds both Texas and Florida if value of goods and services produced by the horse industry by more than $1 billion dollars.

The following information is from the comprehensive report completed in by the Deloitte Consulting LLP for the American Horse Council Foundation (HorseCouncil.org). It validates what the industry has known for some time, that the horse industry is a highly-diverse, national, serious and economically significant industry that deserves the attention of the general public, the media and federal, state and local officials.

California Horse Industry - 4.1 Billion Dollars

The California horse industry produces goods and services valued at $4.1 billion (larger than even Texas which produced $3.0 billion).

There are 698,000 horses in California, over 70 percent of which are involved in showing and recreation. (California is only exceeded by Texas which has 979,000 horses).

311,100 Californians are involved in the industry as horse owners, service providers, employees, and volunteers. Even more participate as spectators.
 
The national industry has a $7 billion impact on the California economy when the multiplier effect of spending by industry suppliers employees is taken into account. Accounting for off-site spending of spectators would result in an even higher figure.
 
The California horse industry directly provides 54,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs. Spending by suppliers and employees (in California and other states) generates additional jobs in California for a total employment impact of 130,200.

. . . work in progress

Texas Horse Industry - coming

Florida Horse Industry - coming

Kentucky Horse Industry - coming

Economic Impact

The horse industry is estimated to contribute nearly $40 billion annually to the Gross Domestic Product of the United States economy. When indirect spending is included this number jumps to approximately $63 billion.

Revenue generation is well balanced with the important categories of racing, showing and recreation each contributing between $10 and $12 billion.

When broken out by type of horse thoroughbreds in racing have the largest economic impact, stimulating economic activity of over $20 billion annually.



Galloping Across Every State

Though there are horses in every state, California , Texas and Florida lead the way in both horse ownership and economic impact.

Texas with nearly a million horses (978,822) leads the nation with the most horses of any state. California comes in second with 698,345 horses and significantly more race tracks than the lone star state. For this reason California leads all states in horse related job creation and economic impact.

The least amount of horses are found in Rhode Island (3,509), Hawaii (8,037) and Delaware (11,083). Though racing is often the most publicized of horse related activities there are nearly four times as many horses involved in recreational pursuits (844,531 vs. 3,906,923). Nearly 3 million horses (2,718,954) take part in showing annually.

Including owners, employees, family members and volunteers there are approximately 4,659,719 people involved in the horse industry every year. This number does not include the many individuals under the age of 18 who also play important roles. For example, approximately 23% of the U.S. Equestrian Federation's total membership consists of junior members.



Horse Owner Demographics

One of the most powerful conclusions of this survey is that there is no such thing as an average American horse owner. Horse owners come from all economic backgrounds, own all types of horses for various purposes and live in a variety of places from tiny towns to large cities.

The economic diversity of the American horse owner disproves the commonly held belief that significant wealth is a prerequisite for horse ownership. The largest group of horse owners (45%) are drawn from the middle class with an annual household income between $25,000 and $75,000. Only 9% of the population earns greater than $150,000 yearly and a full 11% of horse owners have an annual income of less than $25,000.

Horses are also found in all types of communities from rural to urban. The majority of horses (57%) are concentrated in communities with less than 20,000 people. Cities also have a significant number of animals with 26% of horses residing in areas with population densities of over 50,000.

The study has found that horse ownership appeals to people of all ages. The most horse owners (41%) are between the ages of 45 and 59. The 30-44 age bracket is the next most significant group with 35% of horses. The youngest demographic (18-29) is also coming on strong and owns 16% of all horses in America .



The Impact of Breeding

Breeding is of particular importance in the racing industry with approximately 428,000 horses involved in or transitioning into or out of the breeding process every year. This breeding alone creates a direct economic impact of $2.2 billion and stimulates the creation of almost 40,000 Full Time Equivalent jobs.

Breeding is also of vital importance in the showing segment. The approximately 704,000 horses involved produce a direct economic impact of $2.3 billion and create 34,000 Full Time Equivalent jobs.


Job creation

It is estimated that over 700,000 people participate in the horse industry as employees.

The racing industry creates the most jobs with Full Time Equivalent employment of more than 146,000 people. Recreation contributes 128, 324 FTE jobs, showing another 99,051 and other categories were responsible for the remaining 79,612 FTE jobs directly attributed to the horse industry.

When direct and indirect spending are included it is estimated that the horse industry creates approximately 1.43 million FTE jobs.
 

Information from the American Horse Council, Washington DC, (HorseCouncil.org)