Record 30 Million People Took Part in Veganuary 2026 Around the World

Veganuary has just announced a record-breaking year, with around 30 million people worldwide trying vegan this January as part of the 2026 campaign.

The figure comes from nationally representative surveys Veganuary commissioned in twelve of its core countries. YouGov polled 13,529 adults across the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Brazil, Canada and Chile between January 20 and 29, and Wakefield Research polled another 2,000 adults in the US between January 14 and 22. Veganuary then applied the share of people who said they took part to each country's adult population.

Not bad for a campaign that started on a kitchen table in York in 2014. There are now official Veganuary campaigns in 20 countries, with Iceland and Ireland joining this year and the pledge available in Hindi for the first time.

Veganuary CEO Wendy Matthews had a pointed message for anyone who has been busy writing veganism's obituary:

There's been plenty of talk in the media about interest in vegan fading. But the story worth telling is the one unfolding in kitchens, not in the comment section. Millions of people chose kindness this January - for themselves, for animals and for the planet. Veganuary is now firmly mainstream and its continued growth is proof of what happens when people around the world put compassion into practice. We think that's something truly worth celebrating and a powerful sign that conscious food choices are more than a passing trend.

The high street joined in. In the UK, Wagamama, Franco Manca and Wahaca all ran Veganuary specials, Aldi promoted its new range in a Specialbuys magazine sent to more than 1,000 stores, and M&S launched products including Mushroom No-Meatballs and No Chicken Pieces. King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust served over 400 plant-based lunches to staff, and ITV put a vegan-only hot meal on the menu every Tuesday in January.

In Germany, supermarkets even reported a tofu shortage that was widely put down to Veganuary. (We can think of worse problems to have.) YouGov research commissioned before the campaign found 37% of UK adults planned to buy plant-based products this January.

Why does one month matter so much? Because January is where new habits start, and the case for keeping them has never been clearer. Oxford University researchers writing in PNAS calculated that a global shift to a vegan diet would save more than 8 million lives by 2050 and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 66%. Every one of those 30 million people is part of that story.

This is the latest sign of the plant-based revolution Google predicted back in 2016. We called going vegan the biggest trend of 2018, then watched a record 250,000 people sign up for Veganuary in 2019, 582,000 in 2021 and a survey-based 25 million in 2024. And just last month Caribou Coffee ditched its dairy-free surcharge across nearly 500 US stores.

This is just the beginning.