What Percentage of the Population is Vegetarian?

What percentage of the population is vegetarian?

Do more women or men who call themselves vegetarians? Vegan? Eat no meat? Eat only fish? Are college educated? Are age 45+?

Some results may surprise you!

Click ahead to find out…

In 2006, the Vegetarian Resource Group posed the following question in a national poll conducted by Harris Interactive®:

Please tell us which of the following foods, if any, you never eat:
* Meat
* Poultry
* Fish or Seafood
* Dairy Products
* Eggs
* Honey

Results (adults ages 18 and up):

6.7% Never eat meat
6.3% Never eat poultry
14.6% Never eat fish/seafood
7.6% Never eat dairy products
8.8% Never eat eggs
23.4% Never eat honey
2.3% Never eat meat, poultry, fish/seafood (vegetarian)
1.4% Never eat meat, poultry, fish/seafood, dairy products/eggs (vegan, except for possibly honey)

Broken down by gender:
9% of females never eat meat
5% of males never eat meat

Interestingly 1.4% of men are vegan, 1.3% of women. Small difference, but still surprising.

Broken down vegetarians:

Percentage of Various Groups Who Never Eat Meat (Rounded to Whole Numbers):
7% Total Adults
5% Male
9% Female
9% 45- to 54-year-olds
5% 18- to 24-year-olds
8% North East
6% North Central
6% South
7% West
6% White (excluding Hispanic)
7% Black (excluding Hispanic)
8% Hispanic
4% High School Not Completed
6% High School Graduate
8% College Graduate

See the original poll results here:
http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2006issue4/vj2006issue4poll.htm

By the way…
A recent survey showed that 1 in 200 kids (under 18) are vegetarian.