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According to new research by personal finance comparison website, finder.com, approximately 2.9 million people will follow a vegan diet by the end of 2020.
New research conducted by finder.com, the number of people following a vegan diet or opting to go meat-free is set to skyrocket by 2020.
The research found that the number of adults in Britain currently following vegan, vegetarian and pescatarian diets totals 6.5 million, meaning that the number of non-meat eaters would almost double this year if people stick to their resolutions to ditch animal products for plant-based alternatives.
Top trend for 2019
The number of people adopting a vegan lifestyle shows no signs of slowing down as the research claims a plant-based diet will be the most popular diet Brits adopt in 2019 with 2.2 million intending to make more compassionate choices.
This would see the total number of vegans increase by a remarkable 327 percent, to a total of 2.9 million people. This figure reflects the impressive growth experience by the vegan movement in recent years as as previous research conducted by The Vegan Society in 2016 found that there were 542,000 people in Britain following a vegan diet.
Vegetarian
Vegetarianism is currently the most popular of these three diets with 3.6 million claiming to eat a plant-based diet, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. An additional 1.5 million people are aiming to follow suit this year, which would see 10 percent of the adult population being vegetarian by 2020.
Younger generations
Young people are paving the way for meat-free diets as the research discovered this group were significantly more likely to be meat-free than older generations.
Generationally, the percentage of people who eat meat, and don’t currently intend to change, increases with age. While 94 percent of those in the silent generation (born before 1945) and 86 percent of baby boomers eat meat, this figure drops to under two thirds (63%) for post-millenials (born after 1996).
Commenting on the findings, Jon Ostler, UK CEO at finder.com, said: “With the rise of vegan-friendly products such as Greggs’ vegan sausage roll, it’s important to be savvy and shop around to make sure you’re getting the best prices.
“Like any diet, there are ways to avoid falling into traps with overpriced speciality products. A little bit of research and intuitiveness in the kitchen can go a long way. It will also be worth keeping an eye on how Brexit may impact the price of food that we import into the UK.”
To view the full results of the research including a breakdown in cost per diet, please visit: www.finder.com/uk/uk-diet-trends.
