Horse Industry Statistics

The horse industry is a highly diverse industry that supports a wide variety of activities in all regions of the country. It combines the primarily rural activities of breeding, training, maintaining and riding horses with the more urban activities of operating racetracks, horse shows and public sales.

For years, horsemen and women have known that the American horse industry is a serious, economically diverse and productive business that deserves the attention and appreciation of government, media and the public. But they had no written documentation to support their claims.

Now, after a year-long study conducted by the Barents Group of Washington, D.C. and commissioned by the American Horse Council Foundation, the horse industry has its proof that it is a major contributor to the American economy. Following are some industry statistics from The Economic Impact of the Horse Industry in the United States.

How Many Horses are There?

There are 6.9 million horses in the U.S., including both commercial and recreational horses. 725,000 of those horses are involved in racing and race horse breeding, while 1,974,000 and 2,970,000 are used in showing and recreation, respectively. 1,262,800 are used in other activities, such as farm and ranch work, rodeo, polo, police work, etc.

How Many People are Involved in the Industry?

7.1 million Americans are involved in the industry as horse owners, service providers, employees and volunteers. 3.6 million and 4.3 million of those participated in showing and recreation, respectively, with some overlap in cases of people who participate in both activities. 941,000 people participated in racing in either a professional or volunteer capacity. 1.9 million people own horses. In addition to the people actually involved in the industry, tens of millions more Americans participate as spectators.

The horse industry is a diverse, broad-based activity with stakeholders including large numbers of recreational and show horse riders, and moderate-income track, show and stable employees and volunteers. The median income for all U.S. households is $36,000, while the median income for horse owning households is $60,000. 14% of horse-owning households have incomes under $25,000, 38% under $50,000 and 64% under $75,000.

Number of Horses & Participants by Activity

Impact on the American Economy

The horse industry directly produces goods and services of $25.3 billion and has a total impact of $112.1 billion on U.S. gross domestic product. Racing, showing and recreation each contribute more than 25% to the total value of goods and services produced by the industry.

The industry's contribution to the U.S. GDP is greater than the motion picture services, railroad transportation, furniture and fixtures manufacturing and tobacco product manufacturing industries. It is only slightly smaller than the apparel and other textile products manufacturing industry.

The industry pays a total of $1.9 billion in taxes to federal, state and local governments.

Of the 619,400 people directly employed by the industry, some are part-time and seasonal employees, which equates to 338,500 full-time equivalent jobs. This is the standard way that the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures employment in the U.S. The industry generates over 1.4 million FTE jobs across the U.S.

In terms of employment, the industry directly employs more people than railroads, radio and television broadcasting, petroleum and coal products manufacturing and tobacco product manufacturing.

Broken down, the horse industry has a direct economic effect in the urban areas of $2.8 billion and employs 45,800 FTE employees. In rural areas, the direct economic effect is $22.5 billion and employs 292,700 FTE employees.

Got you interested in learning more?  The American Horse Council has all this information in much more detail.  Visit their website and click on statistics to learn how to order the study in detail.

The American Horse Council