A recent study conducted by Gambling.com has ranked different US states regarding their affinity with eating vegan food. Hawaii was named first on the list compiling all categories and scored highly in each category. The ranking in the study titled “Plant-Powered: States Most Likely To Go Vegan” was conducted by analysing data from Google search volumes, vegan vs. meat savings per pound, and vegan restaurants and meetup groups per million residents for each state. Therefore, it looked at veganism mostly as a diet instead of a philosophy.
The top state in the ranking, Hawaii, had the following scores: 77.0 Vegan Interest score, 91.8 Vegan vs Meat Saving score, 100.0 Vegan Restaurants score, and 97.9 Vegan Meetup Groups score. According to the authors, Hawaii has 20 vegan restaurants per million habitants, 5 Vegan Meetups per million residents, $5.75 vegan vs meat savings per pound, and its overall score was 91.7 out of 100.
The second state in the rank was Oregon, scoring 79.0, 83.6, 97.9, and 85.7 in the categories above. The third state was California, followed by New York, Washington and Colorado. Vermont was top in the category of Vegan Meetup Groups, and North Carolina in the category Vegan vs Meat Savings.
The last three states least likely to go vegan were Wyoming, Arkansas, And West Virginia. Wyoming performed poorly in all four categories, with low scores in Google search interest (14.8), meat vs. vegan savings (12.2), and one of the lowest in vegan meetups per capita (0.0). This translates to an overall vegan score of 16.4 out of 100.
The study reads, “As food prices continue to rise across the U.S., people are scrutinizing their groceries more than ever. Add in the increasingly environmentally conscious nature of Americans, and it’s no surprise that the popularity of veganism has risen twelvefold across the country in the past seven years.”
