There’s a report going around that claims the number of vegans in America is now at 6%. That’s a huge increase of 600% since 2014… allegedly.
In 2014, 1% of Americans claimed to be vegan or identified as vegan. In fact, in my own blog post in 2011, I said there were ~2.5% of American males and females identifying as vegan.
However, we need to take all of this with a grain of salt. I think this number of 6% as vegan is possibly slightly exaggerated and probably also includes folks identifying as plant based.
A plant based diet, which is likely vegan in nature, is not what veganism is about. As you know, being vegan extends beyond diet and into lifestyle. Vegans not only DON’T eat any animal products or their secretions, we also don’t wear animal products and we don’t support animal use in entertainment or science. Vegans also try avoid and/or minimize the use of products that might have been tested on animals.
Nevertheless, whether there really are 6% of Americans actually being vegan, I see the move towards greater compassionate awareness and lifestyle choices as very heartening.
More and more people are coming round to the fact that treating animals as sentient beings i.e. not eating them and not abusing them is both good for health, the soul and the environment.
So what do you think? Do you think there really are that many vegans in America? I think there could be, but how can we be really sure.
What I do know is that veganism is soon becoming mainstream and the world will be all the better for it.