Why we publish this
Most pet financial content cites "studies" and "industry data" without ever telling you which studies or whose data. We think that is backwards for content people use to make real decisions. This page lists every source that feeds our calculators, breed analyses, and research — with enough detail that you can go check our work.
If you find a source that is outdated, a figure that no longer matches its origin, or a better dataset we should be using, please tell us. We update in response to verified corrections and credit contributors.
Primary sources (Tier 1)
These are the foundational datasets behind our models. We weight them most heavily and refresh them on the schedule noted.
| Source | What we use it for | Last refresh |
|---|---|---|
| NAPHIA — State of the Industry Report | Base premium rates, average claims data, premium-by-age growth curves, industry loss ratios | April 2026 (2025 report) |
| AVMA — Economic State of the Veterinary Profession | Veterinary cost baselines, routine care pricing, regional cost structure | April 2026 |
| Morris Animal Foundation — Golden Retriever Lifetime Study | Breed-specific cancer probabilities, longitudinal health outcomes (the largest prospective canine study, 3,000+ dogs tracked since 2012) | April 2026 |
| OFA — Orthopedic Foundation for Animals database | Breed-specific hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, and joint-disorder screening rates | April 2026 |
| Royal Veterinary College — VetCompass programme | Breed life-expectancy data and condition prevalence from UK primary-care records | April 2026 |
| Peer-reviewed veterinary literature | Breed-specific condition probabilities, treatment-cost ranges, brachycephalic syndrome research | Ongoing |
Supporting sources (Tier 2)
We use these with appropriate caution — they are reputable but either survey-based, sample-limited, or commercially sourced. We cross-check them against Tier 1 data where possible.
| Source | What we use it for | Last refresh |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer Reports — Pet Insurance Survey (2025) | Policyholder outcome data (the finding that ~34% of policyholders save money), used to validate our model's aggregate "worth it" rate | April 2026 |
| CareCredit — published procedure cost reports | Treatment and surgery cost ranges by procedure, used in our procedure cost guides | April 2026 |
| Major insurer sample policies | Breed-specific premium multipliers, normalized for region and coverage tier (sampled across several leading carriers) | April 2026 |
| Veterinary teaching-hospital published pricing | Specialty-procedure cost benchmarks (TPLO, total hip replacement, oncology), used to bound our estimates | April 2026 |
| US Bureau of Labor Statistics — healthcare cost indices | Regional cost-of-living multipliers applied to baseline veterinary costs | April 2026 |
| Breed-specific health foundations & club surveys | Supplementary breed condition rates (e.g., Bernese Mountain Dog Club health survey, cardiac registries for Cavaliers) | April 2026 |
What we deliberately do not use
Excluding bad sources matters as much as including good ones. We do not use:
- Anecdotal data from forums, social media, or unverified user reports as the basis for any figure
- Insurance-company marketing claims as primary cost data (we use their actual sample-policy pricing, not their advertising)
- AI-generated statistics. No figure on this site was invented or estimated by an AI model; every number traces to a human-verified source
- Content aggregators or other websites without their own traceable primary sources
How current is this data?
We refresh our datasets quarterly. The challenge with pet-industry data is lag: NAPHIA's annual report typically publishes 6–9 months after the period it covers, so even our most current figures reflect data that is, by industry necessity, somewhat behind real time. Veterinary costs have been rising roughly 8% per year — faster than general inflation — so we apply forward adjustment where a source is more than a year stale. Our methodology page documents exactly how that adjustment works.
Each individual breed page, procedure guide, and calculator notes its own last-refresh date. When you see "April 2026" on this site, that is when we last re-baselined that figure against its source.
Data provenance and corrections
We maintain an internal chain of provenance for every figure: which source it came from, which version of that source, and when we last verified it. This is what lets us correct quickly and transparently when a source updates or an error is found.
If you are a researcher, journalist, or veterinary professional and want to verify a specific figure's provenance, contact us — we are happy to walk through exactly where any number comes from. For the formulas that combine these sources into calculator outputs, see our methodology page. For our findings drawn from this data, see the breed cost rankings study.
Citing our data
Our compiled datasets and analysis are available for citation with attribution. We do not charge licensing fees, require embargoes, or demand exclusivity. Suggested citation: PetCareMath. (2026). Data sources and methodology. Retrieved from https://petcaremath.com/research/data-sources. For dataset access or press inquiries, see our contact page.