Rates of Veganism Around the World: Walking the Walk vs. Talking the Talk

How many vegans are there in the world? It depends, rather significantly, on whether you ask people who they are (e.g. “which of the following dietary labels best describes you?”) or measure what they eat (e.g. “How often do you eat the following foods?”). Advocates and researchers have long navigated two conflicting data streams — self-identification and dietary intake — but nobody had systematically mapped the gap between them at a global scale. Until now. This insight gives a glimpse into our latest report with Faunalytics: The Aspirational Plate: Mapping The Gap Between Vegan & Vegetarian Identity And Global Behavior.

We conducted a systematic review of 837 nationally representative sources across 58 countries, covering 2015 to 2025. The sample draws on peer-reviewed papers (28 sources) and grey literature (809 sources), with grey literature amassed from the following movement leaders, data compilers, and international polling organisations: Gallup, YouGov, Statista, Our World in Data, Ipsos, Pew Research, ProVeg International, and the Good Food Institute. Linear mixed effects models were used to track trends over time, test for identity-behaviour discrepancies, and assess the geographical distribution of available research.

The trajectory of veg*nism. Veganism has risen significantly over the past decade, at roughly 0.1% per year. But this growth is almost entirely a European story. North America and East Asia showed positive but non-significant trends; other major regions could not be estimated at all due to missing data. Global vegetarianism has stayed effectively flat.

Are more people talking the talk than actually walking the walk? The identity-behaviour gap is substantial: people are significantly more likely to label themselves vegan or vegetarian than to follow those diets when eating habits are actually measured. For veganism, self-identification outpaces intake by 0.65 percentage points overall, with Europe showing the clearest regional signal (1.65% self-ID vs. 1.01% intake). For vegetarianism, the global gap is 2.43 percentage points — in North America, over four times more people call themselves vegetarian (3.24%) than whose diets reflect that label (0.75%).

Built-in bias. The research base itself is deeply skewed: Europe contributes 50% of studies while representing just 11.5% of the global population, while South Asia — 24% of the world’s population — contributes less than 4%.

For advocates, treat self-identification prevalence figures with caution when citing veg*n rates in campaigns or communications — they consistently overestimate dietary adherence. But the identity-behaviour gap may also signal opportunity; people who over-identify as vegan are likely more receptive to messaging that helps close the gap between their values and their plate.

For researchers, dietary intake measures should accompany self-identification wherever feasible, and future data collection should actively target underrepresented regions, such as South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Do not assume European trends reflect global momentum. The data we do have casts heavy doubt on a universal rise, and the data we don’t have only leaves us with questions.

First, all literature was screened and coded by a single researcher, which introduces the possibility of clerical error or missed sources. Second, the grey literature search was limited to eight specified organisations; and while these sources provided extensive data, usable data from other sources certainly exists. Finally, the present analyses are regional rather than by-country, limiting granularity for advocates working in specific national contexts.