Veganuary Promotes Year-Round Vegan Lifestyles
Published 07 January 2025
Despite the vegan movement losing momentum across the globe over the past five years, Veganuary continues to shift perceptions and behaviours. According to a survey sent to nearly 6,000 participants worldwide who completed 2024’s plant-based challenge, six months after the event, over a quarter are now full-time vegans, and a third have vastly reduced their consumption of animal products.
Although the hype around veganism has waned in favour of less rigid diets like flexitarianism, as well as more extreme but niche choices like the carnivore diet, Veganuary is still going strong, drawing a record 25 million participants worldwide this January.
Following the challenge, UK non-profit Veganuary (which runs the annual event) found that 27% of participants had committed to a vegan diet, and 37% had reduced their consumption of animal products by more than three-quarters compared to before the challenge. Overall, 81% of respondents claimed to have cut animal products from their diets by at least half, and only three per cent said that taking part had made no impact on their long-term choices.
Veganuary
The key factor to remaining vegan after the event for those that did so was discovering that the change was easier than expected. More than half of those who did not switch to a vegan diet said that they would give it another go, and 70% said they would “definitely” try Veganuary again.
Meanwhile, 65% of respondents claimed improvements to their health since cutting down on animal products, including higher energy levels and improved mood. Seventy per cent also reported feeling more inspired in the kitchen, and 60% said that they have become more adventurous with food thanks to their experience of taking the month-long pledge.