More than 1 in 5 of us will be meat-free by 2020

The only way is veggie

Did you start 2019 on the Veganuary wagon? It is estimated that 2.66 million of us tried our hand at vegan living for the first 31 days of the year, and it's predicted that many of those will remain meat-free after the four week challenge.

For a lot of Brits, it's more than just a detox kick start to the new year. According to new research by personal finance comparison website, finder.com, a surprising number of us will be making some serious changes to our lifestyles this year. Onepoll asked 2,000 Brits about their diets to find out just how many people are thinking of making the switch - and the results were very surprising.

There are currently 6.5 million adults following a vegan or vegetarian diet in the UK, and if the 22% of participants who said they would follow one of the three meat-free diets stick to their resolutions, that number could double by the end of 2019.

Can you guess which diet will have the most new recruits this year? You've probably guessed - it's veganism, with 2.2 million intending to ditch animal products by 2020.

However, vegetarianism is currently the most popular meat-free diet with 3.6 million followers, and an additional 1.5 million people are aiming to follow suit this year.

It also looks like there is correlation between age and diet. The percentage of people who eat meat, and don’t currently intend to change, increases with age. While 86% of baby boomers eat meat, this figure drops to under two thirds for generation z.

According to the research, a vegetarian diet will also save the most cash with the average yearly cost coming in at £1,545, which is £457 (26 percent) less than a meat-inclusive diet (£2,002).

Jon Ostler, UK CEO at finder.com, said: 'With the rise of vegan-friendly products such as Greggs’ vegan sausage roll, it’s important to be savvy and shop around to make sure you’re getting the best prices.

'Like any diet, there are ways to avoid falling into traps with overpriced specialty products. A little bit of research and intuitiveness in the kitchen can go a long way. It will also be worth keeping an eye on how Brexit may impact the price of food that we import into the UK.'