More Brits Than Ever Will Celebrate Vegan Christmas

A new heatmap of Britain shows which parts of the country will be adding vegan options to their Christmas celebrations. 

The “Vegan Christmas Heatmap”, was prepared by data provider SEMrush and is based on the Internet searches of vegan alternatives in different areas. It reveals the places where people are going to skip meat and pigs in blankets for vegan options. 

Many people in Britain will choose vegan dishes for Christmas dinner. 

The map shows that inhabitants of the Isle of Wight are especially interested in vegan alternatives. It is where the company noticed a 60 per cent increase - it’s the biggest spike in the UK. 

The number of Internet searches for vegan foods has also risen dramatically in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

What are the most popular vegan searches nationwide?

On a national scale, the study revealed an increasing interest for nut roasts and plant-based substitutes for the Christmas celebrations.

There were about 39,410 people actively searching for vegan and meat-free options before 2018 Christmas celebrations. This signifies a 16 per cent increase on the average 33,840 searches from December 2017. 

This year, online activity for meat-free options is already 25 per cent higher than a year ago. 

There were only three regions where searches for meat-free Christmas recipes have declined year on year: County Durham, East Sussex and West Sussex. And three areas: Northumberland, Gloucestershire and Somerset, where vegan Christmas meal searches showed no movement over the past year.

“Veganism has been big news in the UK this year – you only need to look at the response to Extinction Rebellion and Gregg’s vegan sausage roll launch – so sustainable meat was likely to influence this year’s Christmas celebrations.” "It’s great to see people in nearly every region in the UK are willing to add a vegan element to their Christmas menus. And with more people trying out flexitarian lifestyles, I’m sure this new trend will bring some festive cheer around dinner tables come the big day.” - said Olga Andrienko, head of global Marketing at SEMrush.