Younger generations in the UK and the US are more convinced that a meat-free diet is healthier

According to a survey by the survey website, one-third of Americans (32%) and more than a quarter of Britons (27%) believe that "a meat-free diet is a healthier option". This sentiment is most pronounced among the younger generation in both markets.

In the UK, a third of Gen Z (34%) and millennials (32%) believe that a meat-free diet is more beneficial to health. Every generation's level of identification is declining, with only one in five baby boomers (22%) believing that a meat-free diet is healthier.

The scale follows a similar trajectory in the U.S., but millennials are most likely to see a meat-free diet as a healthier option than Gen Z. Two-fifths of those born between 1982 and 1999 said a meat-free diet was healthier (39%). Overall, generations in the United States are more inclined to consider a meat-free diet healthier than their British counterparts.

How has this belief changed eating habits?

In the marketplace, those who think a meat-free diet is healthier are more likely to become vegetarians or vegans than the general population. In the UK, people who think a meat-free diet is healthier are three times more likely to become vegetarians than the general population (15% vs 5%), although they are only about 7% to 6% more likely to become vegetarians.

In the U.S., those who think a meat-free diet is healthier are more likely to become vegetarians than the average American (6% vs. 2%). Almost one in ten (9 percent) describes themselves as vegetarians, compared to just one in 25 (4 percent) of all Americans.

In both markets, the more popular option for people who believe that a healthier diet without meat is a flex vegetarian diet. Flex vegans are those who eat primarily vegetarian food and occasionally eat meat. In the UK, one in five people who think a meat-free diet is healthier consider themselves to be flex vegetarians, compared to just one in ten (20% vs 10%) of the population. This gap is less pronounced in the United States (21% vs. 14% of the total population).