The study explores the best cities for Vegetarians, looking at the deviation of cost of vegetables as well as the availability and rating of its restaurants.
At Nestpick our mission is to help arrivals transition into a new city. While we know everyone moves for different reasons, and experiences their own challenges, a top argument cited for some is its vegetarian offerings. With plant-based meals rapidly rising in popularity, whether for environmental, health, or ethical reasons, young people, in particular, want to ensure that their city will accommodate their dietary needs. Therefore, we decided to put together an index using data to rank the best cities for vegetarians, both to help those looking to continue their plant-based life abroad to choose the right city for them and to highlight which metropolises are doing the best job of catering to their vegetarian population.
We started by shortlisting the top 75 cities out of a list of 200 that are both popular destinations for relocation, and which had a good reputation with vegetarians. Next, we considered which factors are most important for vegetarians to live a happy and healthy life. Affordable basics such as fruit and vegetables are essential, while plant-based protein is fundamental for maintaining a balanced diet, so we first looked into the cost of these three food groups, including purchase parity and relative affordability for local residents.
Home cooking has long been important for vegetarians, especially during the last 12 months of lockdowns caused by the pandemic, but before and after the pandemic, plant-based restaurants are not only prolific in many major cities, but in some are even considered to be the top-rated eateries overall. To quantify this, we found the percentage and number of vegetarian restaurants in each city, the average rank of the top 10 vegetarian restaurants and the share of restaurants with vegan options. Finally, as the vegetarian community is important to many who might be looking to move abroad, we looked into vegetarian festivals, which illustrate if a city is going the extra mile for its veggie residents and visitors.
"With more and more people looking to reduce their meat consumption, cities must cater to these needs with diverse vegetarian offerings if they want to attract young talent, particularly Millennials, Gen Z, and the even younger generations to come," comments Omer Kucukdere, Founder and CEO at Nestpick. "We hope that this index can inspire vegetarians looking to move abroad to pick the right city for their needs, or even offer travel destination ideas for those searching for the best plant-based gastronomic spots. While there are undoubtedly countless cities that are incredible for vegetarians around the world which do not feature in this index due to a lack of available data, we believe that this shortlist offers an excellent springboard for vegetarians looking to move abroad."
The final index ranks each city out of 100, where the higher the score, the better the city is for vegetarians. The default ranking is the Total Score. Each column is filterable from highest to lowest.
| Affordability | Restaurants | Events | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | City | Country | TOTAL | |||||||||
The Vegetarian Cities Index assesses the availability of vegetarian and vegan restaurants and events, as well as the price levels of vegetarian food whether in supermarkets or restaurants.
City Selection
The cities included in this study were selected from a list of 200 cities–starting with capitals and major population centers– and adding cities that have received media attention for their vegetarian lifestyles or for hosting notable vegetarian food events. Cities were removed where reliable information could not be obtained, resulting in an index of 75 cities.
Factors and Scoring
The study considers three broad categories with the following factors outlined below which make a city attractive to vegetarians: Affordability: Fruit and Vegetable Price Local Affordability (Average % deviation); Protein Price Local Affordability (Average % deviation); Total Price Level (Average % deviation); Vegetarian Restaurant Price Level (Score). Restaurants: Number of Vegetarian-Friendly restaurants (Score); Average Rank of Top 10 Vegetarian Restaurants (Score); Vegetarian-Friendly Restaurants (% of all restaurants); Vegan-Friendly Restaurants (% of all restaurants). Events: Vegetarian Events and Festivals (Score).
Factors are either presented as scores or as price deviations. Each scored factor consists of one or more indicators which were scored and averaged. The equation for scoring is as follows:
z-Score = x - mean(X)Standard deviation(X)in short x - μσ
Data is normalized to a [10-100] scale, with 100 being the best score. Therefore, the higher the score, the better the country ranks for that factor in comparison to the other countries in the index. The formula used is min-max normalisation:
score = (100-10) *x - min(X)max(X) - min(X)+10
The final score was determined by calculating the sum of the weighted average score of all of the indicators and normalizing to a 10-100 scale.
Calculation of Average % Deviations for Local Affordability
In order to provide some global context to prices, some factors are presented as Average % Deviations; for these factors the table presents the average deviation of purchasing parity adjusted prices from the dataset median - the midpoint of the dataset.
To achieve a sense of local affordability, prices in local currencies are adjusted for purchasing parity by converting into international dollars using the implied PPP conversion rates published by the International Monetary Fund. The deviation from the median is calculated using the following formula:
(Adj. Price for city - Median of all adj. city prices) Median of all adj. city prices
The factor Fruit and Vegetable Price Local Affordability presents the average % deviation of prices for Apples, Bananas, Bell Peppers, Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflowers, Eggplants, Garlic, Grapes, Onions, Oranges, Potatoes, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes and Zucchinis. The factor Protein Price Local Affordability presents the average % deviation of prices for Canned Beans, Chickpeas, Lentils, Quinoa, Soy milk and Tofu.
When collecting prices for these factors, a standardised profile for each product was created in order to obtain comparable average prices across all countries. If the specified package size wasn’t available, the closest available package size was taken instead and standardised according to the profile to ensure comparability. The prices were collected from typical, mid-range online supermarkets in every country and does not include prices from discount or speciality supermarkets.
Affordability
Fruit and Vegetable Price Local Affordability (Average % deviation)
The price level of fruits and vegetables, adjusted for purchasing power and presented as a percentage deviation from the dataset median (see Calculation of Average % Deviations for Local Affordability above for details on methodology).
The price level is constructed as an average of % deviations of the following product groups, collected from online supermarkets: Apples, Bananas, Bell Peppers, Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflowers, Eggplants, Garlic, Grapes, Onions, Oranges, Potatoes, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes and Zucchinis.
Source: Online mid-range supermarkets in each country
Protein Price Local Affordability (Average % deviation) The price level of protein rich vegetarian foods, adjusted for purchasing power and presented as a percentage deviation from the dataset median (see Calculation of Average % Deviations for Local Affordability above for details on methodology). The price level is constructed as an average of % deviations of the following product groups, collected from online supermarkets: Canned Beans, Chickpeas, Lentils, Quinoa, Soy milk and Tofu. Source: Online mid-range supermarkets in each country
Total Price Level (Average % deviation) The combined price level of fruits, vegetables and protein rich vegetarian foods, converted to US dollars and presented as a percentage deviation from the dataset median (see Calculation of Average % Deviations for Local Affordability above for details on methodology). The price level is constructed as an average of % deviations of the following product groups, collected from online supermarkets: Apples, Bananas, Bell Peppers, Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflowers, Eggplants, Garlic, Grapes, Onions, Oranges, Potatoes, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes, Zucchini, Canned Beans, Chickpeas, Lentils, Quinoa, Soy milk and Tofu. Source: Online mid-range supermarkets in each country
Vegetarian Restaurant Price Level (Score) The availability of affordable vegetarian restaurants in each city; the percentage of vegetarian restaurants labeled as ‘affordable’ on restaurant directory websites, as a share of all vegetarian restaurants. The factor is expressed as a score, where a high score indicates a higher share of affordable vegetarian restaurants. Source: Local Restaurant Directories
Restaurants
Number of Vegetarian-Friendly restaurants (Score) The number of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in each city adjusted for population, expressed as a score. Source: Local Restaurant Directories
Average Rank of Top 10 Vegetarian Restaurants (Score) The average rank of the 10 highest rated vegetarian and vegan restaurants, expressed as a score. Source: Local Restaurant Directories
Vegetarian-Friendly Restaurants (% of all restaurants) The number of vegetarian restaurants in each city, as a share of all restaurants, expressed as a percentage share. Source: Local Restaurant Directories
Vegan-Friendly Restaurants (% of all restaurants) The number of vegan restaurants in each city, as a share of all restaurants, expressed as a percentage share. Source: Local Restaurant Directories
Events
Vegetarian Events and Festivals (Score) The number of vegetarian- and vegan-themed events and festivals, adjusted for population, expressed as a score. A point system was used; assigning 1 point for annual festivals listed on global festival directories, ½ point for events such as food markets that were not listed in global event directories, and a tenth of a point for themed gatherings open to the public.
Source: Local events websites; Wikipedia; VegEvents.com, Meetup.com and local events directories.