London ranked No. 1 in the world on HappyCow’s Top 10 Vegan Friendly Cities List 2019.
This doesn’t come as a surprise, many of us having already heard, or had the chance to experience first-hand, how wonderful the city’s vegan food scene truly is.
The Top 10 Cities List was published in December of 2019, and after letting the results sink in, I couldn’t help but wonder:
(1) When was it that London became so great for vegans?
(2) Are the number of vegan restaurants catching up to that of vegetarian ones?
Keep reading to find out.
I was given access to a slice of HappyCow’s Database (as of December 2019), containing the essentials for my analysis: restaurant types (vegan / vegetarian), location (London), and opening/closing dates.
After some sorting-through of the raw data, I was able to generate the results below – which hopefully speak for themselves.
Note: HappyCow has been in existence online since 1999 – slightly more than 20 years. However, the current system of data recording has been in effect only since 2007. This means that we do not have additional data from prior to 2007. However, since veganism was in its infancy at this time, we believe that the available data is most pertinent.
But let’s dive into it a bit, shall we?
Firstly, we can see that between 2007 and 2014, the number of vegan eateries in London did increase, but only slowly. Nothing particularly of interest happened during this time. The growth plodded upwards, dipped down again at points, and made no extraordinary progress.
But in 2015, something changed. Between 2014 and 2015, the number of vegan restaurants nearly doubled within a twelve-month period. It marked a clear turning point, as the number of vegan restaurants made a sharp upward turn, signalling the exponential growth to come.
This trend continued in 2016, and then again into 2017, passing from sixty-something to more than a hundred vegan restaurants in the city! That is, more than 50% more vegan listings in just one year! And it did not stop there.
By the end of 2019 there were more than 150 vegan restaurants listed on HappyCow. This means that the number of vegan restaurants quadrupled between 2015 and 2019! Wow!
And it seems that London hasn’t had enough of it yet (and why should they?). Into 2020 and beyond, we will all watch this growth continue with excitement.
Taking a look next at the vegetarian listings, we can see that there was a twofold increase in 2008; and another solid jump in 2018. By the end of 2019, there are more than 180 vegetarian eateries in town, which means that the numbers have doubled since 2010.
However, where once the gap between the quantity of vegetarian and vegan restaurants was around 90 establishments (year 2010), by the end of 2019 this gap has dramatically reduced to less than 30. Thus, it seems that vegan listings in London are catching up to fellow vegetarian ones, and I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years they will surpass them in number. Wouldn’t that be awesome?
In some major cities in the world there are, in fact, already more vegan than vegetarian restaurants! – but we’ll save that for another article on another day.
It is undeniable that the demand for compassionate, conscious food choices has exploded in recent years. Not only omnivorous restaurants are increasingly more vegan-friendly; but the number of purely vegan eating establishments is also on the rise. London is leading the way for a worldwide movement.
See all vegan / vegetarian restaurants in London on HappyCow here.
This article was co-authored by Ricardo Sapaico (statistical analysis) and Emma Cebuliak (editorial).
Tweet us: @HappyCow!
