Pet Adoption Statistics by State

National adoption totals tell you how many pets found homes across the whole country — but they hide enormous variation between states. A state's shelters can be adopting out animals at a healthy clip and still be overwhelmed, if intake is rising even faster. Shelter Animals Count, the nonprofit that runs the largest shelter-data collection network in the country, publishes exactly the numbers needed to see that difference: adoptions, community intakes, and non-live outcomes, each measured per 1,000 residents so states of every size can be compared fairly.

The figures below come directly from SAC's 2024 State Level Data, sourced from more than 6,000 participating shelters and rescues nationwide.

Pet Adoption & Shelter Intake Rates by State

Shelter Animals Count (SAC), the national nonprofit that aggregates shelter and rescue data from more than 6,000 US organizations, publishes per-capita adoption and intake rates for all 50 states and Washington, DC. The table below ranks every state by adoptions per 1,000 residents — the most population-adjusted way to compare a small state like Wyoming to a large one like California.

What These Numbers Mean

SAC defines each metric per 1,000 state residents: adoptions is animals adopted out of reporting shelters/rescues; community intakes is animals taken in from the public (strays, surrenders); non-live outcomes covers animals that did not leave the shelter system alive (primarily euthanasia). A higher adoption rate is generally positive. Lower community-intake and non-live-outcome rates are generally positive — they indicate fewer homeless pets entering the system per capita, and fewer of those animals failing to find a live outcome.

The Rural-Urban Divide

The pattern in the table is consistent: low-density Mountain West and Plains states — Wyoming, New Mexico, Kansas, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska — post per-capita rates several times higher than dense Northeastern states like Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, across all three metrics at once. This tracks with known regional differences in free-roaming and stray animal populations, spay/neuter access, and the number of shelters relative to population, rather than reflecting how much any individual state's residents care about animal welfare.

A Note on Data Reliability

SAC states directly on its own state-level data page: "SAC's national dataset is a combination of actual and estimated intake and outcome numbers for cats and dogs derived from organization-level data reported to Shelter Animals Count from over 6,000 organizations. Accuracy of estimated data is highest at national aggregation. State-level data has a higher level of uncertainty and is intended for general informational use only." We're including that caveat here in full because it applies directly to every number in the table above.

One additional note: as published, Arizona's per-capita figures (19.7 / 28.0 / 3.4) are identical to Arkansas's, which appears to be a data duplication on SAC's live dashboard rather than a true independent statistic for Arizona — we're reporting it as published as of our last check and will update if SAC corrects it.

For national-level adoption totals and outcomes, see our pet adoption statistics page; for shelter capacity and system-level trends, see our animal shelter & rescue statistics page.

The Big Picture

Per-capita adoption and intake rates vary by a factor of five or more between the highest and lowest states — Wyoming adopts out pets at more than five times Massachusetts's per-capita rate, and New Mexico's community-intake rate is nearly ten times Massachusetts's. That gap says less about how much any one state's residents value pets, and more about differences in regional stray populations, spay/neuter access, and shelter capacity relative to population. Combined with SAC's own caution that state-level estimates carry more uncertainty than national figures, these numbers are best read as a directional regional picture rather than a precise leaderboard.