Single people are more likely to be vegetarian than their married counterparts, according to a new Gallup study, with 8 percent of single people saying they are vegetarian compared with 5 percent of married people.
And the number of self-proclaimed vegetarians in the United States has remained about the same over the past 10 or so years, at 5 percent -- in 1999 and 2001, it was 6 percent.
The study is based on data from 1,014 people ages 18 and up who live all around the country. The researchers wrote that "vegetarianism in the U.S. remains quite uncommon and a lifestyle that is neither growing nor waning in popularity."
Researchers also found that 2 percent of people surveyed considered themselves vegan (with the traditional meaning of vegan meaning that you consume no animal products).
While researchers largely found that the percentages of vegetarians across different demographics were all relatively low and within just a few percentage points of each other, some groups are slightly more likely to be vegetarian than others.
For example, 7 percent of women in the study considered themselves vegetarian, compared with 4 percent of men. And 5 percent of people ages 18 to 29 and 4 percent of people ages 30 to 49 considered themselves vegetarian, compared with 7 percent of 50-to-64-year-olds and 7 percent of people ages 65 and older.
Education also seemed to play a small part in rates of vegetarianism. Six percent of people who had completed high school or less, or some college, considered themselves vegetarian, while 3 percent of people who had graduated from college considered themselves vegetarian. Five precent of post-grads considered themselves vegetarian, according to the Gallup study.
And vegetarianism was slightly more popular among liberals -- 7 percent -- than with moderates and conservatives -- 5 percent each.