The sixth survey of the Vegan Research Panel took place during October 2002. 2196 panel members were sent an email inviting them to complete an online survey comprising 13 questions. 56% of the panel completed the survey within an 18 day period.
If you want
to get a chef get a vegan
Vegans are confident cooks, with 9 out of 10 vegans feeling confident
about preparing a meal from scratch. UK vegans are more likely to be very
confident about cooking from scratch than the general population. In particular,
vegan men and long-term vegans consider themselves very competent in the
kitchen. (1)
1. In the UK, 70% of UK vegans are very confident, compared to just 60% of the population. More than a third (37%) of UK vegan men consider themselves to be very competent cooks, compared to only a quarter (24%) of UK men. The number of vegans who consider themselves to be very competent increases from 27% for those who have been vegan less than two years, to 42% for those who have been vegan for over 10 years. (General population figures taken from the MORI/Nestlé Family Monitor No 13, Dec 2001.)
Recipe for
success
New vegans refer to recipes 5 to 6 times a month (2),
and two-thirds of all vegans (65%) use a recipe at least once a month.
In the UK, vegans use twice as many recipes a month as the general population,
and only 6% say that they never use them, compared to 24% of the population
as a whole (3).
2. Those who have been vegan for less than 2
years use an average of 5.5 recipes per month.
3. UK vegans refer to recipes 3 to 4 times a month (mean=3.5) compared
with a UK average of 1 to 2 times a month (mean=1.5). (General population
figures taken from the MORI/Nestlé
Family Monitor No 13, Dec 2001.)
Where do you get yours?
Vegans get their recipes from cookery books (86%), the internet (60%),
magazines (44%) and friends (38%). In the USA, almost as many vegans use
the internet as a source of recipes (78%) as cookery books (85%).
Vegan sources
The vast majority of UK vegans (87%) use cookery books compared to under
two-thirds (59%) of the general UK population. Households containing a
vegan have, on average, 12 cookbooks, compared to the UK household average
of 8. UK vegans are also 10 times more likely to source recipes from the
internet. (4)
4. General population figures taken from the MORI/Nestlé Family Monitor No 13, Dec 2001. 52% of UK vegans use the internet to find recipes, compared to just 4% of the UK population.
Christmas shopping
Almost two thirds (62%) of UK vegans intend buying Christmas presents
online this year (5). 9 out of 10 vegans
(91%) who bought presents online last year are opting for the same method
this year and almost a third (30%) who did not shop online last year intend
to this Christmas.
5. This is the same percentage as 2000 and 2001, however the number of vegans actually buying increased from 44% in 2000 (Survey 4) to 49% in 2001.
Vegan jobs
As well as chefs, there are vegan accountants, administrators, artists...
lawyers, lecturers, librarians... receptionists, registrars, researchers...
plus phlebotomists and prison guards, sculptors and subtitlers... and
even weather forecasters!
The figures below are based on the 1223 panel responses unless otherwise stated. Figures in parenthesis are based on the 497 UK vegan responses.
| More healthy | 50% | (44%) |
| Unchanged | 38% | (47%) |
| Less healthy | 12% | (9%) |
| Not at all confident | 2% | (2%) |
| Not very confident | 8% | (5%) |
| Fairly confident | 27% | (23%) |
| Very confident | 63% | (70%) |
| Not at all competent | 3% | (3%) |
| Not very competent | 9% | (8%) |
| Fairly competent | 54% | (53%) |
| Very competent | 34% | (36%) |
| Every day | 3% | (2%) |
| 2-3 times per week | 16% | (12%) |
| Once per week | 19% | (15%) |
| Once a fortnight | 13% | (16%) |
| Once a month | 13% | (16%) |
| Less often | 14% | (15%) |
| Special occasions only | 17% | (18%) |
| Never | 5% | (6%) |
| Cookery books | 86% | (87%) |
| Magazines | 47% | (42%) |
| TV cookery programmes | 12% | (10%) |
| Family | 31% | (24%) |
| Friends | 39% | (35%) |
| Shop cards/leaflets | 12% | (10%) |
| Food packets | 27% | (26%) |
| Newspapers | 10% | (9%) |
| Internet | 59% | (52%) |
| Radio cookery programmes | 1% | (1%) |
| 1 | 3% | (2%) |
| 2 | 5% | (4%) |
| 3-4 | 15% | (13%) |
| 5-6 | 14% | (13%) |
| 7-8 | 10% | (11%) |
| 9-10 | 14% | (16%) |
| 11-15 | 14% | (17%) |
| 16-20 | 8% | (8%) |
| 21-30 | 8% | (7%) |
| 31+ | 8% | (8%) |
| None | 1% | (1%) |
| Working full time (30+ hours per week) | 55% | (58%) |
| Working part time (9-29 hours per week) | 11% | (13%) |
| Unemployed - seeking work | 3% | (2%) |
| Unemployed - not seeking work | 1% | (1%) |
| Not working - retired | 1% | (1%) |
| Not working - looking after house/children | 5% | (6%) |
| Permanently sick/disabled | 1% | (2%) |
| Student | 19% | (13%) |
| Other | 4% | (4%) |
| 1. Computing/Information Technology (16%) including computer programmers, IT consultants, software developers and website designers. |
| 2. Education and research (15%) including lecturers, teachers, tutors and researchers. |
| 3. Clerical and administration (12%) including office administrators, secretaries and book-keepers. |
| 4. General management (9%) including office managers, project managers and shop managers. |
5. Nursing and carers (5%) including registered nurses, occupational therapists and carers. |
| This was an open-ended question. Other jobs consistently mentioned included accountants, receptionists, customer service representatives, account managers, sales assistants, social workers, counsellors, editors and librarians. These figures are based on the responses of the 509 vegan panel members who answered this question. |
| Less than a year | 6% | (4%) |
| 1 to 2 years | 13% | (11%) |
| 2 to 5 years | 22% | (18%) |
| 5 to 10 years | 25% | (29%) |
| 10 to 20 years | 25% | (31%) |
| More than 20 years | 7% | (7%) |
| I am not vegan or vegetarian | 2% | (0%) |
| Several times a day | 57% | (49%) |
| Once a day | 20% | (20%) |
| Several times a week | 19% | (25%) |
| Once a week | 2% | (3%) |
| Several times a month | 2% | (2%) |
| Once a month or less | *% | (1%) |
| Yes | 81% | (83%) |
| No | 19% | (17%) |
| Yes | 58% | (62%) |
| No | 42% | (38%) |
| Yes | 44% | (49%) |
| No | 56% | (51%) |