Guest guest Posted November 5, 2008 Report Share Posted November 5, 2008 >Numerical Strength of vegans > >Posted by: " sonal - " sonal_greens sonal_greens >Tue Nov 4, 2008 2:54 am (PST) > >PLEASE HELP me out on this asap! >I need to know the no. of vegans in England/U.K.WHICH I can then >incorporate(asa rough estimate) in a leaflet which me and my vegan >friend plan to distribute to cafes, etc.in our local area.I need it >really asap! >Thanx to all ! >Sonal > >Posted by: " Paul Russell " prussell arc_software_ltd >Tue Nov 4, 2008 4:43 am (PST) > >According to the following it looks like around 250,000 or 0.4% of the >population: <http://www.imaner.net/panel/statistics.htm>. They give this as a maximum but go on to mention that their estimate was skewed by a faulty DEFRA survey which potentially confused vegetarians and vegans, and that taking this survey out would give a figure of 180,000. The other big error reflected in the Imaner figures was taking the figure for the number of households containing at least one vegan and assuming that everyone else in the household was vegan as well - making it at least twice as high as it really was. Some of us do live in all- vegan households, but a lot of us don't. As a result, the figure we'd all been happily citing turned out to be much lower. The Vegan Society looked into the whole subject in more depth quite recently and it seems that the true figure is at least 120,000 and probably closer to 150,000 - so you could get away with an estimate of " about 150,000 " . Understandably, the Society did not rush to publish this rather disappointing result. We had also been adding to our figure each year as we knew that lots of people were becoming vegan each year. A bit like the guy who did a survey of the number of new doctors needed and forgot that old ones die - the NHS was left short for years while the guy responsible was knighted and made master of a Cambridge college (where he would presumably do less harm than at the Department of Health or wherever). Going back to the DEFRA study, apparently what they did (and they have confessed this to the Vegan Society and to Imaner) was to ask a general question: " Are you vegetarian or vegan? " On inspecting the results of other questions, it revealed that some people were confused by this, taking it as an either/or and checking " vegan " because they knew they weren't vegetarian. I can't remember the exact details, but could forward them tonight if people are interested. It's really scary when one goes into the actual evidence in any of these studies: you regularly find people claiming to be vegan and then blithely stating much goat's milk, gorganzola, honey or even kippers they consume in an average week, Obviously the meaning of the word is not well understood! More significantly, what our research into the true situation did reveal was that the number of vegans has remained basically static for at least ten years. The proportion of these who are Vegan Society members has also remained static. The problem seems to be not so much a failure to get new vegans: a large number of people do become vegan every year, but sadly an equally large number give up - sometimes because it was just a passing phase anyway, sometimes for social reasons but all too often because they simply don't feel as well as they did on a vegetarian or omnivorous diet. So alongside outreach efforts to convert more omnis/veggies to veganism we need to address the problem of the hole in the bottom of the tank which seems to be about the same size as the inlet at the top. Any ideas anyone? Meanwhile, if Sonal or anyone else would like the specifics on the statistical findings, let me know and I'll forward them. To the average omnivore 150,000 vegans sounds like a huge number - so the correct figure shouldn't do our propaganda any harm. Good luck with the leaflet! Vanessa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 6, 2008 Report Share Posted November 6, 2008 , interveg wrote: This is interesting as I always thought the number of vegans seemed quite large and what Vanessa explains seems closer to the reality we all know. > More significantly, what our research into the true situation did reveal > was that the number of vegans has remained basically static for at least > ten years. The proportion of these who are Vegan Society members has > also remained static. What is the proportion? Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 6, 2008 Report Share Posted November 6, 2008 The figures are so disappointing, why would this be the case? I had always suspected that there were less than 250,000 of us, since if that were the case we would all be meeting more vegans just by chance, and I don't think that has ever happened to me. Finding other vegans in one's own local community is still something that takes effort. I am not sure what more we can do, helping on awareness raising stalls, or even just setting an example in day to day life and being prepared to answer people's questions as to one is vegan, why is there not more progress when so many of us do these things already? I don't think the poor figures are due to lack of hard work and effort by the Vegan Society and other groups such as Viva! and Vegancampaigns, but for some reason the message seems to be very slow getting through. Vanessa do you know if the numbers of vegetarians has risen? I would suspect their numbers have risen and many sympathise with veganism but still perceive it as too difficult and limiting, certainly that is the impression I got on a vegan leaflet table I did on Monday in Kingston with a couple of other local vegans. We had lots of members of the public who came up and said they were vegetarian, but many did not seem sure they were ready to take the next logical step (even after 20 years as vegetarians in some cases). We were able to offer them leaflets with recipes as well as information on all the reasons to be vegan. Lesley _____ On Behalf Of andrew6766 06 November 2008 11:38 Re: Fwd: Digest Number 1416 @ <%40> .com, interveg wrote: This is interesting as I always thought the number of vegans seemed quite large and what Vanessa explains seems closer to the reality we all know. > More significantly, what our research into the true situation did reveal > was that the number of vegans has remained basically static for at least > ten years. The proportion of these who are Vegan Society members has > also remained static. What is the proportion? Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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