Dog-related injury claims are rising sharply across the United States, with insurers handling thousands more cases in 2025 than just one year earlier and the total cost of those claims approaching $2 billion.
Homeowners insurers received 28,450 dog bite and other dog-related injury claims in 2025, up from 22,658 in 2024, an increase of approximately 25.6% in a single year. The financial toll reached $1.862 billion, while serious and fatal attacks have also become an increasing public-safety concern.
Against that backdrop, an analysis by Sweet James compared states based on the broader burden facing dog-bite victims, including attack risk, claim costs, exposure and differences in state laws.
The resulting Dog Bite Risk Index places New York first nationally, with a composite score of 63.3 out of 100. North Dakota ranks second, followed by Virginia, Kansas and Arkansas. California, Alaska, Nevada, Mississippi and Connecticut complete the 10 states with the highest combined risk.
The ranking is not simply a count of dog bites. Instead, it considers whether victims may face a combination of frequent attacks, high financial costs and greater legal barriers after an injury.
New York Ranks No. 1 for Overall Dog Bite Victim Risk
New York’s position at the top of the Sweet James analysis was driven heavily by the financial burden associated with dog-related claims and relatively high victim exposure.
| Rank | State |
|---|---|
| 1 | New York |
| 2 | North Dakota |
| 3 | Virginia |
| 4 | Kansas |
| 5 | Arkansas |
| 6 | California |
| 7 | Alaska |
| 8 | Nevada |
| 9 | Mississippi |
| 10 | Connecticut |
The analysis emphasizes that the states with the most individual claims are not necessarily the states where victims face the greatest overall burden.
Population size, insurance costs and state liability rules can significantly change the picture. A state can therefore have fewer total incidents but rank highly because victims face greater financial exposure or more restrictive legal conditions following an attack.
There is also an important legal caveat surrounding New York’s ranking. Sweet James notes that the state’s liability framework changed after the data for the study were collected following the 2025 Flanders v. Goodfellow decision. The ranking therefore reflects the legal conditions incorporated when the index was constructed rather than necessarily capturing every subsequent change in state law.
Florida Leads the Nation for Dog Bite Attack Risk
Looking only at attack frequency produces a markedly different ranking.
Florida received the highest dog-bite attack-risk score, at 100, despite ranking much lower when all factors were combined.
Other states ranking highly for attack risk included New York, North Dakota, Virginia, Kansas, Arkansas, Alaska, Nevada, Connecticut and Mississippi. Texas recorded the lowest attack-rate score in the analysis, while California also ranked near the lower end of that individual measure.
The contrast illustrates why attack frequency alone does not capture the full burden associated with dog bites.
California, for example, ranked sixth overall despite its comparatively low attack-frequency score because other factors, particularly financial exposure and claim costs, pushed the state substantially higher in the combined ranking.
The broader national trend is also significant. An estimated 4.5 million dog bites occur in the United States annually, while approximately 71 million U.S. households owned dogs by 2025.
Fatal incidents, although much less common, have also increased.
CDC mortality data incorporated into the analysis recorded 127 fatal dog attacks in 2024, compared with 48 deaths in 2019. That represents an increase of approximately 165% over five years.
Dog Bite Claims Are Becoming Increasingly Expensive
Beyond the physical injuries caused by an attack, insurance data point to a rapidly growing financial burden.
Sweet James’ state-level claim-cost analysis places New York first for claim-cost risk, followed by California, Texas and Illinois.
| State | Average claim value used in claim-cost ranking |
|---|---|
| New York | $110,488 |
| California | $86,229 |
| Texas | $75,674 |
| Illinois | $73,797 |
These figures measure the financial consequences of claims rather than how frequently residents are bitten. Higher claim values can reflect factors including the severity of injuries, medical treatment expenses and compensation associated with individual cases.
Nationwide, dog-related liability claims totaled $1.862 billion in 2025, demonstrating how expensive these incidents have become for insurers, victims and dog owners.
The impact can extend well beyond the initial emergency room visit.
Dog bite injuries can involve deep wounds, infections, fractures, nerve damage, scarring and reconstructive surgery. Severe attacks may also create longer-term psychological and financial consequences.
Serious Dog Bites Can Require Surgery and Hospitalization
Medical data incorporated into the Sweet James analysis show the substantial health burden associated with serious dog attacks.
Dog bites account for an estimated 85% to 90% of animal bites and result in approximately 337,000 emergency department visits annually. Nearly one in five victims requires medical treatment, while an estimated 18% of bites become infected. Children face particularly significant risks of serious injury.
For victims who require hospitalization, the consequences can be considerably more severe.
The study cites healthcare data showing:
- The average dog-bite-related hospital stay lasts approximately 3.3 days.
- The average hospitalization costs approximately $18,200.
- That cost is about 50% higher than the average injury-related hospital stay.
- More than 57% of hospitalized dog-bite patients require surgery.
- Common diagnoses include open wounds, infections and fractures.
Sweet James also developed a Victim Cost Model intended to estimate the broader financial consequences of a serious bite requiring hospitalization.
The model combines an $18,200 baseline medical cost with approximately 3.5 weeks of lost wages and an estimated $1,200 in mental-health treatment expenses.
Under that model, the total estimated burden of a serious hospitalized dog bite ranges from approximately $23,222 to $26,330, depending partly on wage differences between states. Connecticut recorded the highest modeled victim cost, while Mississippi recorded the lowest.
Legal Protections for Dog Bite Victims Differ Widely by State
Where an attack occurs can also determine what a victim must prove to recover damages.
Dog-owner liability generally falls under three broad legal approaches: specific dog-bite statutes, traditional one-bite rules and negligence principles.
Under strict-liability-style dog bite statutes, owners can face liability even when a dog has no documented history of aggression. Under one-bite frameworks, victims traditionally face a greater burden to establish that an owner knew or should have known that the animal presented a danger. Negligence claims can instead focus on whether the owner failed to reasonably control the animal.
Sweet James’ analysis identified North Dakota, Kansas, Arkansas and Mississippi as having the highest legal-risk scores in its index because the states were classified as lacking a specific dog-bite statute in the framework used for the study.
The research separately evaluated differences in owner accountability, including the severity of potential penalties and whether state law contains mandatory euthanasia provisions following qualifying attacks.
Eight states received the highest leniency score in that portion of the analysis:
- Alaska
- Arkansas
- Idaho
- Kansas
- Mississippi
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
- Wyoming
By comparison, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina and Washington were placed in the analysis’ strongest accountability category.
These categories describe statutory differences and should not be interpreted as guaranteeing the outcome of an individual dog-bite case. Liability can depend on the facts of the incident as well as state and local law.
Connecticut Has the Highest Victim Exposure Score
The likelihood of encountering dogs and the potential economic consequences of an injury also vary geographically.
Connecticut recorded the highest victim-exposure score at 100, according to the Sweet James analysis.
It was followed by:
| State | Victim Exposure Score |
|---|---|
| Connecticut | 100.0 |
| Massachusetts | 95.2 |
| Washington | 94.9 |
| California | 91.6 |
| New York | 83.2 |
| New Jersey | 81.9 |
Mississippi had the lowest exposure score, with West Virginia, South Dakota, Idaho, Montana and Kentucky also ranking toward the bottom.
The exposure ranking adds another example of why the overall risk index can differ sharply from simple attack totals.
Postal Workers Report Thousands of Dog Attacks Each Year
For some Americans, dog bites are also an occupational hazard.
The U.S. Postal Service reported more than 5,200 dog attacks on postal employees during 2025. California recorded the largest number of incidents, followed by Texas, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania.
| State | USPS dog attacks, 2025 |
|---|---|
| California | 673 |
| Texas | 358 |
| Ohio | 287 |
| New York | 269 |
| Pennsylvania | 267 |
At the city level, Los Angeles recorded 70 attacks, the highest total cited in the analysis. Dallas followed with 50, Denver with 45, Houston with 44 and Chicago with 43.
Postal employees are not the only workers regularly entering environments where unfamiliar dogs may be present.
Delivery drivers, utility employees, landscapers, contractors, home healthcare workers and animal-care professionals can all face elevated exposure because their jobs routinely require them to enter private properties or interact directly with animals.
Research summarized in the study also indicates that dog bites are a significant occupational concern among veterinary professionals, with studies finding that substantial shares of veterinarians and veterinary technicians experience dog bites during their careers.
Dog Bite Risk Goes Beyond the Number of Attacks
The findings show that dog-bite danger varies depending on how risk is measured.
Florida stands out for attack frequency, New York for financial claim risk, Connecticut for victim exposure, and several states create additional legal hurdles for victims under the framework evaluated by Sweet James.
At the same time, the national numbers point to a broader trend.
Dog-related insurance claims climbed to 28,450 in 2025, up approximately 25.6% from 2024, while insurers paid approximately $1.862 billion for dog-related liability claims. Fatal attacks also reached 127 in 2024, according to the mortality data included in the study.
For victims, the consequences can extend from an emergency department visit to surgery, lost income and long-term treatment. For workers who regularly enter homes and yards, exposure may be a routine part of the job.
Taken together, Sweet James’ analysis shows that the states with the most dog attacks are not always the places where victims face the greatest overall burden. Claim costs, economic exposure and state liability rules can substantially alter the consequences of an attack, creating significant geographic differences in what happens to victims after a bite occurs.
