These surveys ask adults which of six options best describes their dietary preferences. The six options are meat-eater, flexitarian, pescetarian, vegetarian, vegan, or none of these. Each respondent is only allowed to pick one of the six options. In the accompanying box, we provide a description of each of these diets, as YouGov describes them in their survey.
The results are shown in the chart. 5% described themselves as vegetarian; 3% as pescetarian, and 2% as vegan. Together these sum up to 10% – this means that 10% of British adults report that they do not eat meat (but some of them do eat fish).
A further 16% described themselves as flexitarians, meaning they were mostly vegetarian, but occasionally ate meat or fish.
These results are very similar to those from other countries.
In a 2018 Gallup poll from the US, 5% of American adults identified as vegetarian, and 2% as vegan.
In a wider 2018 poll from Ipsos Mori – spanning 28 countries – 5% of respondents identified as vegetarian, 3% as vegan, and a further 3% as a pescetarian. However, this poll showed very different results for some countries. For example, one in five people in India identified as vegetarian.
