Israel Ranks 6th World-Wide For Veganism Popularity In 2018
A woman, wearing a shirt reading ‘proud to be vegan’, carries a vegan hamburger during the ‘Vegan Fest’ fair in Israel. Image by AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ, Getty
In a recent Chef’s Table analysis of world-wide vegan habits, Israel was ranked 6th for the second year in a row, with a Vegan Popularity Score of 78. This is no surprise, considering that at least 5.2% of Israelis follow a vegan diet, and even fast food pizza brand Domino’s decided Israel was the place to launch its vegan pizza line.
But in mapping out the 10 countries in which veganism was most popular, and comparing it with the Jewish population, a question must be asked: Are countries with a higher Jewish population more likely to be vegan? What percentage of Jews are vegan?
Map by Shira Feder. Study by Chef’s Pencil. Jewish population data from World Jewish Bank._
While knowing what percentage of Jews are vegan may prove impossible, organizations like Jewish Veg and the fact that vegan restaurants merit their own category in the Forward Food Awards speaks to the growing popularity of a plant-based diet for many Jews. 44% of the world’s Jews live in Israel, ranked 6th, and trailing right behind that is a slightly less vegan America, where 39.5% of the world’s Jews live, making two of the world’s most Jewish countries also two of the world’s most vegan countries.
“If you look at the countries where veganism is very popular, they all have a few things in common,” Corina Onet, who created the Chef’s Table analysis, told the Forward. “They’re usually cities with a young, hip and educated population. Many are university cities or cities with a large population of artists and people working in creative industries.” This concurs with the most recent Jewish demographic data of Jewish Virtual Library, which states that “the vast majority of Jews (97%) live in urban metro areas surrounding cities.”
So are countries with lots of Jews more likely to be vegan? According to the data – that sounds about right.
Shira Feder is a writer. She’s at [email protected] and @shirafeder
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
