According to a 2021 study from Global Consumer Survey, 1.5% of respondents in Spain followed a vegan diet in 2021, compared to 0.8% who declared to be vegan in the previous edition of 2019. This value has been growing over the recent years.
A similar increase can be found in other European countries, such as Germany or the United Kingdom, where the percentage of respondents who identify as vegans is estimated to be 3.2% in both countries.
The consultancy Laterm published a report titled “The Green Revolution”, which has also been recording a downward trend in meat consumption in Europe and the growing interest in plant-based alternatives. When they first conducted this study in 2017, the number of non-meat-eaters in Spain was 7.8%, divided into 1.3% vegetarians, 0.2% vegans and 6.3% flexitarians. In 2019, Lantern’s update showed an increase of 27% in two years, setting the number of vegetarians at 1.5%, vegans at 0.5%, and flexitarians at 7.9%. In the newly published report for 2021, the number of veggie people has grown another 34%, so we have now 1.4% vegetarians, 0.8% vegans and 10.8% flexitarians. This report also concluded that, in Spain, in the last five years, the number of vegetarian or vegan eateries has doubled, reaching almost 800 establishments.
However, Spain remains a country with very high consumption of meat. According to data from the Spanish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, the average consumption is almost 50 kg per person per year, well above the 21 kg recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, it is noted that its consumption has fallen by 5.6% since 2012 and that of fruits and vegetables has grown by 10.5%, as can be seen from the latest report on Consumption and Food of Spain, prepared by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries.
