Portland tops list of best cities in the world for vegans and vegetarians

According to researchers at Chef’s Pencil — an international food magazine that covers global food trends — Portland is the top city in the world for vegans.

The folks at Chef’s Pencil used Google Trends and Google Adwords to analyze the popularity of veganism worldwide and how it has been impacted by the pandemic.

Turns out, Google Adwords data displayed a massive increase in the number of searches for vegan-related searches in 2020, up 47% year-over-year.

“To put things into perspective, veganism is now almost twice as popular as it was just five years ago, and it doesn’t show any sign of slowing down,” reported the study.

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After being outranked by Bristol in the UK for the past two years, Portland has reclaimed its title as the vegan capital of the world.

In spite of its top position, the pandemic has hit Portland’s restaurant scene, and vegan restaurants were not left unscathed. Google data showed that eating out at vegan restaurants had decreased in 2020, with search levels for restaurants dropping by a quarter year-over-year, even well into the last months of the year.

Portland managed to pull the top spot on the list as the drop in restaurant visits was offset by a surge in searches for vegan recipes and vegan foods such as cheese and ice cream.

Here are the most popular cities for veganism worldwide:

Chef’s Pencil