Share of population by type of diet Spain 2019

The vast majority of the Spanish population is omnivorous. As the latest surveys reveal, almost 90 percent of Spaniards followed an omnivorous diet in 2019, in contrast with 1.5 percent of the population that considered themselves vegetarians during the same period. Nonetheless, some studies also inform that about 20 percent of the population tried to eat less meat, poultry or fish in 2018.

Spain: the largest European fish consumer

Spaniards are big fans of fresh fish, and this can be proved by just taking a look at the latest figures, which position Spain as the largest consumer of fish in the European Union, at over 660 thousand metric tons in 2016, nearly doubling the numbers of Italy, which ranked second at 330 thousand metric tons. The average Spanish consumed more than ten kilograms of fresh fish in 2017, which is a significant larger number amount than that of frozen fish, which stood at approximately 2.5 kilograms per person the same year.

Meat consumption in Spain

Spaniards consumed approximately 50 kilograms of meat per person in 2017. Fresh meat was the most consumed type of meat in Spain that year with nearly 35 kilograms per capita, followed by processed meat at 11.4 kilograms per head. Spaniards however spent more money on processed meat than on any other type of fresh meat, as was revealed by the latest figures. The Mediterranean country spent over 4 billion euros on processed meat, followed by pork and chicken, that recorded values of over 2 billion euros.