Global: Are consumers more likely to follow a meatless diet?

COVID-19 brought about a lot of lifestyle changes, including but not limited to dietary habits. Latest data from YouGov’s newest tool, Global Profiles, reveals how many consumers agree or disagree with the statement that a meatless diet is a healthier option. Global Profiles tracks consumer thoughts, feelings, behaviours and habits, and also monitors global trends and media consumption across 43 markets

In this piece, we’ve picked 26 countries from all the markets surveyed in Global Profiles. Overall, nearly four in ten global consumers (39%) say that a meatless diet is healthier. This attitude could be attributed to the growing awareness of vegetarianism and veganism across the globe.

A few Asian countries are more likely than global respondents to agree that a meatless diet is the healthier option. Indian consumers register the highest percentage of those who agree (57%), followed by the Philippines (47%), Indonesia and Vietnam (44% each). Countries in this region that don’t over-index the global audience include China (37%) and Hong Kong (35%). Singaporeans register less than a third of consumers, while Japan rounds out the bottom of the list – with 14% consumers likely to agree with the statement.

Among the European countries, Germany is almost as likely as global respondents to agree on the health benefits of a meatless diet (38%). However, the rest of the continent sees nearly a a third consumers agreeing with the statement - Portugal and Ireland (30% each), Greece and Great Britain (28% each). Less than two in ten consumers (18%) in Hungary agree with the statement, making it the least amiable to a meat-less diet in Europe.

While a significant proportion of consumers in all 26 markets are on the fence about the benefits of vegetarian or vegan food, Germans have fairly strong opinions. Only over one in ten Germans (13%) are undecided, the lowest in all markets and less than half the global respondents (34%). Consumers in US (20%), Morocco (21%) and South Africa (22%) also register a low share of consumers who neither agree nor disagree.

Over a quarter of global consumers (27%) don’t think a meatless diet is a healthier option. That share almost doubles among Japanese consumers as roughly half of them disagree with the statement (51%). Other countries where meat is possibly an important part of consumers’ diets include Germany and Great Britain (49% each), US, Spain and Hungary (47% each). China and Vietnam register the lowest share of consumers who think a meatless diet is not a healthier option (16% and 17% respectively).

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Methodology: YouGov Global Profiles is a globally consistent audience dataset with 1000+ questions across 43 markets. The data is based on continuously collected data from adults aged 16+ in China and 18 and over in other markets. The sample sizes for YouGov Global Profiles will fluctuate over time, however the minimum sample size is always c.1000. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India and UAE, which use urban representative samples, and China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, which use online representative samples. Learn more about Global Profiles.