Europe: Companion Animal Tech Drives Europe’s €54B Vet Market Into New Growth Cycle

Europe’s veterinary services market has closed out 2025 at a baseline valuation of $53.9 billion (approximately €49.7 billion), entering its 2026–2033 forecast cycle on the back of a sector reshaped by pet humanization, corporate clinic consolidation, and fast-growing digital wellness technology.

New data from Grand View Research’s Europe Veterinary Services Market Size & Outlook places the region as the second-largest veterinary services market in the world, trailing only North America.

Market Snapshot

Growth Curve: Market Entering a New Cycle

According to the Grand View Research databook, Europe’s veterinary services market generated $53.9 billion in revenue in 2025, and is estimated to reach $58.6 billion in 2026 — the opening year of a forecast cycle that runs through 2033, when the market is projected to nearly double to just over $100 billion. That trajectory implies a compound annual growth rate of 7.9% across the 2026–2033 window, a notably faster pace than the low-single-digit growth typically associated with mature European service industries.

Production animals — covering cattle, swine, and poultry — remain the largest single segment, accounting for 63.39% of 2025 revenue, reflecting the continued scale of Europe’s livestock and dairy sectors along with EU-mandated veterinary health certification requirements tied to the bloc’s more than €24 billion in annual animal product exports. But the segment driving the forecast’s acceleration is companion animals — dogs, cats, horses, and other pets — which Grand View Research identifies as the fastest-growing animal type over the forecast period.

The Drivers: Pet Humanization, Consolidation, and Digital Diagnostics

Three forces are converging to push companion animal care ahead of the pack:

Pet humanization. European pet owners increasingly treat animals as family members rather than property, a shift that has translated directly into spending. According to the European Pet Food Industry Federation (FEDIAF), over 80 million households across Europe owned at least one pet as of 2023, and the UK’s Companion Animal Health Report found average annual veterinary spending per pet owner rose from €900 in 2020 to €1,200 by 2023. Pet insurance penetration — notably high in Sweden, Germany, and the UK — has further lowered the financial barrier to premium diagnostics and treatment.

Corporate clinic consolidation. Large veterinary groups continue to expand their share of the European market. The sector’s largest platforms — including IVC Evidensia and CVS Group — sit among the biggest named players in Grand View Research’s company tracking for this market, alongside groups such as Pets at Home and National Veterinary Associates. Consolidation has been most extensively documented in the UK, where the country’s Competition and Markets Authority found that six large veterinary groups collectively control around 60% of the national market — a dynamic mirrored, to varying degrees, across other major European economies as corporate roll-ups acquire independent practices and standardize service and pricing models.

Digital wellness and diagnostic adoption. Clinical technology adoption is accelerating across the region. More than 35% of companion animal practices in Northern Europe now offer remote triage through teleconsultation platforms, while over 200,000 smart collars tracking vitals and behavior were sold across Europe in 2023 alone. In Germany, France, and the Netherlands, more than 65% of first-tier companion animal clinics now operate in-house digital imaging systems for real-time diagnostic assessment, and physical health monitoring — encompassing wearable-linked wellness programs — is Europe’s fastest-growing veterinary service category, expanding at a projected CAGR of 9.7%. Alongside imaging and wearables, next-generation sequencing and other advanced diagnostic tools are increasingly moving from referral-hospital settings into everyday first-opinion practice, part of a broader shift from episodic veterinary visits toward continuous, data-driven pet health monitoring.

Why Production Animals / Livestock Still Lead — For Now

Despite companion animals’ faster growth rate, production animal services retain the larger revenue base, underpinned by Europe’s export-driven livestock economy. Countries such as Germany and Denmark mandate quarterly herd health audits and digital veterinary record integration to maintain export eligibility, while in the Netherlands, most commercial pig and poultry farms undergo monthly veterinary inspections. This compliance-driven demand provides a stable, if slower-growing, revenue floor beneath the more dynamic companion animal segment.

Regional and Global Context

Europe’s position as the world’s second-largest veterinary services market — behind North America and ahead of a rapidly growing Asia Pacific region — reflects both its mature pet-ownership base and its large-scale livestock sector. Globally, Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest-growing regional market through 2033, reaching an estimated $59.0 billion, as rising incomes and pet ownership rates in China, India, and Southeast Asia expand from a smaller current base. Within Europe itself, Norway is projected to register the highest country-level CAGR through 2033, though larger markets such as Germany, France, and the UK continue to account for the bulk of regional revenue in absolute terms.

What to Watch Next

• Country-level breakdowns as 2026 estimates are finalized for major markets including Germany, France, the UK, and Italy.

• Regulatory developments, particularly the UK’s ongoing CMA-driven price transparency and ownership disclosure reforms, which could influence pricing and consolidation dynamics elsewhere in Europe.

• Continued M&A activity among the large corporate groups, as platforms such as IVC Evidensia and CVS Group pursue further practice acquisitions across the region.

• Adoption curves for wearable health tech and remote triage, as these move from early-adopter Northern European markets into Southern and Eastern Europe.