A new study about the autonomous communities in the Spanish State where people are more interested in veganism has ranked Catalonia as number one. The study was conducted by Vegans and Plants doing an analysis of Google searches regarding veganism. Catalonia came up on top with 12.93% of the searches, followed by the Community of Madrid (9.60%), the Balearic Islands (8.11%), the Valencian Community (7.19%), and the Basque Country (7.13%). On the other end of the list, Murcia and Extremadura had the fewest searches.
Regarding cities, Barcelona is by far the most vegan city in the Iberian Peninsula. The capital of Catalonia accounted for 7.5% of all searches in the 50 most populated cities within the Spanish State. It is followed by Tarragona (another Catalan city) with 4.62% of the searches, Madrid with 3.76%, and Valencia (part of the Catalan Countries) with 3.72%. The three cities at the bottom of the list are from the Madrid Community (Móstoles, Leganés and Fuenlabrada).
Catalonia also has a very active vegan activist community. On 15th October 2022, a vegan activist from the direct-action group Animal Rebellion Barcelona interrupted an event on healthy eating in Barcelona where the mayor of the city Ada Colau, and the ministers of Labour and Consumption of the Catalan Government, Yolanda Díaz and Alberto Garzón, were speaking. The activist glued herself to the lectern, which had to be removed. It is not a coincidence that Catalonia banned bullfighting as long as more than 12 years ago, and even if the Spanish Constitutional Court eventually ruled that the ban was unlawful, bullfighting has not returned to the country. Catalonia also banned wild animals in circuses before any other region in Spain did.
