Highlights
of the national study include:
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.
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.
Numbers of Horses
The study concludes that there are 9.2 million horses in the U.S., including horses used for racing,
showing, competition, sport, breeding, recreation and work. This includes horses used both commercially and for pleasure.
Specifically, the number
of horses by activity is:
Racing - 844,531
Showing - 2,718,954
Recreation
- 3,906,923
Other - 1,752,439
Total - 9,222,847
“Other” activities
include farm and ranch work, rodeo, carriage horses, polo, police work, informal competitions, etc.
Participation
4.6 million people are involved in the horse
industry in some way, either as owners, employees, service providers or volunteers. This includes 2 million horse owners,
of which 238,000 are involved in breeding, 481,000 in competing, 1.1 million involved in other activities, 119,000 service
providers and 702,000 employees, full- and part-time and 2 million family members and volunteers. That means that 1 out of
every 63 Americans is involved with horses.
The Size and Impact of the Industry
Gross Domestic Product
The study documents the economic impact of the industry in terms of jobs and contribution to the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The study’s results show that the industry directly produces goods and services of $38.8 billion and has a total
impact of $101.5 billion on U.S. GDP.
It is strong in each activity with racing, showing and recreation each contributing between $10.5
and $12 billion to the total value of goods and services produced by the industry.
Specifically, the GDP effect for each (in billions of
dollars) is:
Direct
Total
Racing
10.6
26.1
Showing
10.8
28.7
Recreation
11.8
31.9
Other
5.5
14.6
Total
38.8
101.58
Employment
The industry employs 701,946
people directly. Some are part-time employees and some are seasonal so this equates to 453,612 full-time equivalent jobs.
The industry supports
a total of over 1.4 million FTE jobs across the U.S. as follows:
Direct
Total
Racing
146,625
383,826
Showing
99,051
380,416
Recreation
128,324
435,082
Other
79,612
212,010
Total
453,612
1,411,333
Taxes
The
industry pays a total of $1.9 billion in taxes to federal, state and local governments as follows (in millions of dollars):
Federal - $588
State - $1,017
Local
- $275
The Diversity
of the Industry
The
results of the study show that the horse business 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, off-track betting parlors, horse shows and public sales.
Income Levels
The study dispels the
misperception that the horse industry is an activity only for wealthy individuals. In fact, the horse industry is a diverse
activity with stakeholders including recreational and show horse riders, and moderate-income track, show and stable employees
and volunteers.
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.
Community Size
Over 70% of horse owners live in communities of 50,000 or less.
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