Thank you Edouard. Really excited to see Our World in Data tracking this. :)
When we track share of vegetarians, vegans, etc. in population there is an ever-present problem of social desirability bias. It seems that people tend to label themselves as vegan or vegetarian even when they are consuming animal-based products on a regular basis.
Around 1% of adults both self-identify as vegetarians and report never consuming meat. It seems that this percentage has not changed substantially since the mid-1990s
Hopefully, it’s no longer the case.
Maybe the title and the subtitle of your article on this should underline that it’s the share of people who self-report to be on a certain diet? This could help avoid some confusion in the future.
Someone I know has spoken to a dozen senior researchers and others in EA animal welfare.
The resulting understanding is that the actual number of vegans or vegetarians are consistent with the numbers in the above comment (1-2% in the USA, UK and CAD).
Another important fact seems to be that these numbers have not changed despite decades of dietary change information and campaigning at the individual, consumer level.
This seems to be relevant when making plans in animal welfare about which interventions to pursue.
Thank you Edouard. Really excited to see Our World in Data tracking this. :)
When we track share of vegetarians, vegans, etc. in population there is an ever-present problem of social desirability bias. It seems that people tend to label themselves as vegan or vegetarian even when they are consuming animal-based products on a regular basis.
There is an excellent and rigorous research on this by Saulius Šimčikas—Is the percentage of vegetarians and vegans in the US increasing? from 2018. One of his conclusion regarding consumption was quite striking:
Hopefully, it’s no longer the case.
Maybe the title and the subtitle of your article on this should underline that it’s the share of people who self-report to be on a certain diet? This could help avoid some confusion in the future.
Thanks for the feedback Jakub! I’ve added a clearer mention of the self-reporting aspect in the article & charts.
Someone I know has spoken to a dozen senior researchers and others in EA animal welfare.
The resulting understanding is that the actual number of vegans or vegetarians are consistent with the numbers in the above comment (1-2% in the USA, UK and CAD).
Another important fact seems to be that these numbers have not changed despite decades of dietary change information and campaigning at the individual, consumer level.
This seems to be relevant when making plans in animal welfare about which interventions to pursue.