With October 1 being World Vegetarian Day and then with November 1 being World Vegan Day, and meat prices getting hit much harder by inflation than fruit and vegetable prices, the personal-finance website WalletHub has released a report on 2024’s Best Cities for Vegans & Vegetarians to identify the places that make a switch to a plant-based diet easiest. This relates to cities within the U.S.
World Vegetarian Day seeks to “To promote the joy, compassion and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism.” It brings awareness to the ethical, environmental, health, and humanitarian benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle.
To determine the best and cheapest places for a plant-based diet, WalletHub compared the 100 largest cities across 17 key indicators of vegan- and vegetarian-friendliness.
The data set ranges from the share of restaurants serving meatless options to the cost of groceries for vegetarians to the number of salad shops per capita.
The top ten cities were revealed to be:
1. Los Angeles, CA
2. Orlando, FL
3. Portland, OR
4. San Diego, CA
5. Seattle, WA
6. Austin, TX
7. San Francisco, CA
8. Miami, FL
9. Phoenix, AZ
10. Tampa, FL
Following this, the next ten were:
11. New York, NY
12. Washington, DC
13. Oakland, CA
14. Las Vegas, NV
15. Chicago, IL
16. Atlanta, GA
17. Madison, WI
18. Houston, TX
19. Sacramento, CA
20. San Antonio, TX
The data pattern reveals some interesting variations. For example, Scottsdale, Arizona, has the highest share of restaurants serving vegetarian options, which is 12.3 times higher than in Laredo, Texas, the city with the lowest.
The city again features in the data highlights for Scottsdale, Arizona, has the highest share of restaurants serving vegan options, which is 59.9 times higher than in North Las Vegas, Nevada, the city with the lowest.
In terms of people-led action, San Francisco has the most community-supported agriculture programs (per square root of population), which is 19.8 times more than in Dallas, Texas, the city with the fewest. With consumer patterns, Miami has the most salad shops (per square root of population), which is 13.1 times more than in San Bernardino, California, the city with the fewest.
