1% of the population

[Oatmeal Girl]

Many sources say that vegetarians make up about 1% of the population. Do you really think this is accurate? I think it must be higher, especially if they count ovo-lacto vegetarians. Any thoughts?

[Lacykitten]

It sure seems to be a lot less in my city. Someone said 1% of my city's population would be like 130 or 1300 or something. I'd like to see that.

[attackferret]

I'd believe 1-2% of the population is vegetarian in Bloomington.. and we're a super liberal college town. I have no idea where these numbers come from.

[Dave Noisy]

Don't forget about all the red states..haha..

The more progressive cities will have a higher proportion of veggies, but this changes dramatically as population centers shrink, and in certain areas of the country.

Makes sense to me.

[kkohne]

I live in Texas. I'd be surprised if 0.1% of the population here is vegetarian. I think the cows here even eat meat. :(

[Oatmeal Girl]

You guys all make sense. It just seems so odd to think that with all of the information about health benefits and quality products, only 1% is even vegetarian, let alone vegan.

[bird]

1% vegetarian nationally? I was under the impression that it was 1% vegans nationally, and 12-15% vegetarians. Of course, I don't even remember now where I heard/read that, so it may be totally booo-gus (as Tom and Ray would say). Even if it's not as high as 15%, I think it must be higher than 1%, or why would so many chain restaurants bother having a "veggie" section on their menu? Just for people who are on weight-loss diets?

[bluedawg]

I was under the impression that it was 1% vegans nationally, and 12-15% vegetarians.
ooooh, i like those numbers better. let's hope it's closer to those numbers. :)

i seem to remember hearing the 1% vegan thing, too, but i don't remember ever seeing any numbers about vegetarians.

[Tracy G]

This information at the Vegetarian Resource Group is possibly what you're looking for:
http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2003issue3/vj2003issue3poll.htm

For a good (if dated) discussion on the difficulties of collecting statistics, you might also wish to see this earlier article from the same website:
http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/poll.htm

[9nines]

The growth of Whole Foods is a good sign. While Whole Foods of course sells animal products, its shoppers evidently strongly care about food quality and healthfulness of food (why else would they pay the higher prices that Whole Foods's better quality products cost than for the price, those shoppers could buy lesser quality similar type products at main stream stores.) So those shoppers would likely be more inclined to become vegan. So Whole Foods's business success, shows a growing amount of people more likely to become vegan which should mean more vegans.