Research
2019 survey of vegans in Great Britain Percentage of UK adults identifying as vegan 1.20% 0.90% 0.60% 0.30% 0.00%
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FSA Food and You survey In summer 2019, The Vegan Society worked with independent survey company Ipsos Mori to carry out a face-to-face survey of almost 10,000 people aged 15 or over in Great Britain. We used the question: Which, if any, of the following applies to you? Please state all that apply. • Completely vegetarian • Partly vegetarian • Vegan • Avoid certain food for religious or cultural reasons • None This question had been used previously in the Food and You survey carried out on behalf of the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) every two years since 2010. A smaller survey by The Vegan Society of almost 2000 people in 2018 demonstrated that this question identified dietary vegans reliably. Combining our results with those of the FSA shows dramatic recent growth: the percentage of vegans in 2019 (1.2%) was about five times higher than that observed in FSA surveys between 2010 and 2014. Like all surveys, our latest survey has significant uncertainty in its result: the 95% confidence interval ranges from 1% to 1.5%. All the earlier surveys have even greater uncertainty due to much smaller survey size, so we cannot be precise about the timing of the growth between
24 The Vegan | Issue 1 2020
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Vegan Society/Ipsos Mori survey 2014 and now. 60% of vegans in the 2019 survey had been vegan for less than four years, consistent with the recent rapid growth in numbers.
Demographics About 20% of vegans were non-white, consistent with the general population (particularly after allowing for the younger age distribution of both vegans and the non-white population of Great Britain). Vegans were also fairly evenly distributed through different regions of Great Britain. Vegans were more likely to be younger (1.9% of under-35s were vegan), to have completed more years of formal education (2.1% of those with degrees were vegan), and to be female (1.5% of females were vegan). Non-vegan vegetarians (3.9% of the survey sample) and non-vegans who said they would definitely consider a vegan diet in the future (4.9% of the survey sample) showed a weaker pattern in the same direction. Comparing vegans with other vegetarians, vegans were less likely to come from an Indian ethnic background and were younger than other vegetarians, but the percentage of females was very similar at about 63%. A third of non-vegan vegetarians said they would definitely consider a vegan diet in the future. A growing and diverse body of people are embracing veganism and The Vegan Society, with the help of our members, will continue working to extend and diversify this growth in the UK and beyond, building a future in which veganism is accepted as normal and desirable.
