Meat & Fish Are Still on the Menu for Most Americans

Around 14 percent of U.S. adults born between 1995 and 2012 are either vegan or vegetarian, according to Statista’s latest Consumer Insights survey. As our chart shows, the share of people opting for a plant-based diet decreases rapidly with age.

Three percent of U.S. adults born between 1965 and 1979 said that they were vegetarians in the survey, while only two percent said they followed a vegan diet. For the baby boomers (born 1964-1946), two percent were vegetarian and one percent vegan. However, the survey also found that a higher share of U.S. adults can imagine going without animal produce at least on occasion, with between seven and 15 percent of survey respondents per generation describing themselves as “flexitarians”. This diet focuses more on cutting down on eating animals and their produce, rather than stopping eating meat and fish altogether.

As awareness around the carbon footprint of meat production increases, more and more people are turning to plant-based diets, driving the innovation and production of meat substitute markets. However, as Felix Richter reports, meat substitutes still make up only a tiny sliver of the U.S. meat market, pulling in $1.3 billion in sales in 2021 versus the $160 billion of fresh and processed meat.