'Best Cities For Vegans' List Gives NYC Top Honors

NEW YORK CITY — Thinking about giving up meat, or moving to a vegan diet? You couldn't pick a better place to live than New York City, according to WalletHub's 2017 "Best Cities for Vegans and Vegetarians" list.

New York is No. 1 on the personal finance website's list for ease of living with a meatless diet, beating out cities such as Portland, Oregon and Orlando, Florida.

WalletHub's rankings are based on three major criteria — affordability of groceries and vegan meals; diversity, accessibility and quality of vegan food options; and the presence of a "vegetarian lifestyle" in a city. The website evaluated the presence of vegan restaurants, farmers markets and community gardens, as well as food prices and vegetable consumption in 100 big cities across the U.S.

New York is the best for diversity, accessibility and quality, with the most restaurants serving vegetarian options per capita and the second-most farmers markets per capita. The city ranks eighth for its vegetarian lifestyle and 41st for affordability.

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About 8 million people, or 3.2 percent of adults in the U.S., are vegetarian, eating no meat, or vegan, eating no animal products at all, according to a 2016 poll commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group. The number is higher in the nation's northeast region, with 5.4 percent of adults saying they follow a meatless diet.

New York has taken top honors as a vegan center in the past. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals named New York the "Most Vegan-Friendly City in the U.S." in 2014, according to amNewYork.

The West Coast, though, claimed most of the top 10 spots on WalletHub's list. Portland, Oregon ranked second, San Francisco is fourth, Los Angeles is fifth, Seattle is sixth, Scottsdale, Arizona is eighth and San Diego, California is 10th.

See WalletHub's full "Best Cities for Vegans and Vegetarians" list here.

(Lead image by Keith Srakocic/Associated Press)