New York's average dog-bite insurance claim is the highest of any state in the country at $92,154. A look at where bites happen across New York City, which dogs are involved, and the borough where the rate is highest.
A dog bite is more expensive in New York than anywhere else in the country. The average dog-bite insurance claim in the state reached $92,154 in 2025, the highest of any state and well above the national average of $65,450, according to the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm. Across the country, insurers paid out $1.86 billion on roughly 28,450 dog-bite claims that year. This report looks at where bites actually happen in New York City, which dogs are involved, and the borough where the rate is highest.
The New York City boroughs where dogs bite most
Reported dog bites per 1,000 licensed dogs, by New York City borough, 2024. Hover or tap a borough for detail.
Rate uses reported bites against registered dogs only, and licensing compliance varies, so this is a borough comparison index rather than a true per-dog risk. Reported bites are not a complete count of all bites.
| Borough | Reported bites, 2024 | bites per 1,000 licensed dogs (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Bronx | 843 | 75.2 |
| Staten Island | 383 | 51.2 |
| Queens | 989 | 46.4 |
| Brooklyn | 819 | 27.7 |
| Manhattan | 853 | 23.8 |
Raw counts hide the real story
By raw count, Queens reports the most dog bites in New York City, with 8,652 over the decade, followed by Manhattan and Brooklyn. But counts mostly track how many people and dogs a borough has. Adjusting for the number of licensed dogs flips the picture. The Bronx has the highest bite rate at 75 per 1,000 licensed dogs in 2024, roughly three times Manhattan's 24.
Analysis. The reframe matters because raw totals make dense, populous boroughs look dangerous and quiet ones look safe, when the per-dog reality is close to the opposite. The caveat is that licensing compliance is uneven, so the rate is best read as a relative comparison across boroughs, not an exact probability.
NYC dog bites over time
Reported dog bites in New York City, by year.
| 2015 | 3,557 | 10.5% |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 3,212 | 9.4% |
| 2017 | 3,511 | 10.3% |
| 2018 | 3,377 | 9.9% |
| 2019 | 3,534 | 10.4% |
| 2020 | 2,551 | 7.5% |
| 2021 | 2,921 | 8.6% |
| 2022 | 3,464 | 10.2% |
| 2023 | 3,865 | 11.4% |
| 2024 | 4,041 | 11.9% |
Reported bites dipped in 2020 during the pandemic, then climbed every year since to a ten-year high of 4,041 in 2024.
The breeds most often reported
Most frequently reported breeds in NYC dog bites, 2015 to 2024.
| Pit Bull | 5,853 | 55% |
|---|---|---|
| Shih Tzu | 949 | 8.9% |
| German Shepherd | 940 | 8.8% |
| Chihuahua | 869 | 8.2% |
| Yorkshire Terrier | 654 | 6.1% |
| Siberian Husky | 507 | 4.8% |
| Rottweiler | 494 | 4.6% |
| Labrador Retriever | 379 | 3.6% |
Breed is self-reported free text and about a quarter of records list no usable breed, so these are conservative single-label counts. Grouping related labels, the pit-bull family appears in 7,666 bites, about 22 percent of all reports and 30 percent of those where a breed was identified.
Spaying, neutering, and mail carriers
Across the decade, 77% of the dogs involved in reported NYC bites were not spayed or neutered, a figure that lines up with research connecting intact dogs to higher bite risk. New York also has a mail-carrier problem. The U.S. Postal Service ranked New York fourth in the nation for dog attacks on carriers in 2025 with 269, and Rochester was the only New York city to appear in the national city rankings.
The national picture
New York's costs sit against a large national backdrop. Each figure below links to its source.
The CDC emergency-room figure is from a 2001 study and is included only for historical national scale, not as a current number.
If a dog bit you in New York
New York holds a dog owner responsible for a bite victim's veterinary and medical costs regardless of fault, and where the owner knew the dog had dangerous tendencies, for the full range of injuries including pain and suffering. A claim can also reach a landlord or other party in some circumstances. Bite injuries to children and to the face are especially serious and often involve long-term costs.
If you were injured by a dog in New York, the team at Porter Law Group can review your injury and your options at no cost. There is no obligation.
Methodology
The average-claim figure is the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm 2025 dog-bite liability data. New York City bite counts come from the NYC Department of Health dog-bite dataset and cover reported bites from 2015 through 2024, which is not a complete count of all bites. Breed is self-reported free text, and about a quarter of records list no usable breed, so breed counts are conservative. The bites-per-1,000 rate divides 2024 reported bites by 2024 registered dogs from the NYC dog-licensing dataset, mapped to boroughs by ZIP code. Because licensing compliance varies, the rate is a relative comparison across boroughs rather than a true per-dog probability. USPS figures are the 2025 national rankings.
