Vegan Survey 2025: Community Leans Secular and Politically Left

The people behind a plant-based diet rarely match the cliché that gets pinned on them. A recent analysis of the 2025 vegan survey run by the information portal vegan.eu lands on a striking conclusion: the large majority of respondents have little time for organised religion, and they place themselves clearly on the progressive, left-hand side of the political map. The image of a spiritually charged eco-crowd, so often invoked, simply does not survive contact with the data.

A clear distance from religion

On questions of faith, the result leaves little room for interpretation. Just over 56 percent of participants said they reject religion, or reject it strongly. Close to a third, around 31 percent, took a neutral stance. That leaves a small group of not quite 13 percent who describe themselves as religious or very religious. Only 2.3 percent see themselves as strongly anchored in faith.

Spirituality does a little better, but wins no majority

The picture softens somewhat once the question shifts from organised religion to spirituality in a broader sense. Here the largest share, roughly 41 percent, settles in the middle. Almost 32 percent wave it off, while about 27 percent feel some connection to the spiritual side. Even so, no clear majority forms around it.

For Guido F. Gebauer, the psychologist and co-founder behind the survey, the findings dismantle a widespread assumption. Vegans, he argues, show no special pull toward faith, spirituality or esotericism. If any worldview tendency stands out at all, it runs the other way, toward a religion-critical, atheist or agnostic outlook.

Faith and party preference barely overlap

The survey gets genuinely interesting where it sets religion against politics. The verdict is unambiguous: nearly 94 percent of the variation in political views has nothing to do with a person’s relationship to religion or spirituality. The single strongest link the analysis can find explains under five percent. It hints only faintly that religious or spiritual participants skew a touch more conservative, while a critical stance toward religion pairs with more progressive positions. As an explanatory factor, that is close to noise.

A milieu that clusters tightly on the left

What does bind this group together is its political direction. The vegan audience turns out to be remarkably uniform, and that uniformity pulls sharply to the left. It matches the party preferences from the wider survey: roughly 40 percent named Die Linke, a good 32 percent the Greens, seven percent the Animal Welfare Party. The conservatives, Social Democrats, liberals and the far-right AfD barely register in this group. The pattern of concerns points the same way. Around two thirds name the climate crisis as their biggest worry, while immigration hardly moves anyone here.

That ethics, food and worldview travel together is a thread running right through the scene. Readers who want the detail will find it in our piece on a US study showing most students would eat vegan if they could, or in Annelina Waller’s reflections on life inside the vegan bubble. For a longer view of where the movement is heading, there is also our look at the future of veganism.

What it means for brands and messaging

For companies hoping to reach these people, the data carries an uncomfortable but useful message. Anyone courting vegan customers with incense-scented romance and spiritually loaded promises is aiming at the wrong target. What lands is the opposite: sober, verifiable arguments. Brands win with evidence and with values this group already holds, above all climate protection, animal welfare and social justice.

About the survey

A total of 2,161 vegans aged between 18 and 84 took part, most of them from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The survey ran between April and September 2025, carried out by vegan.eu together with the matchmaking platform Gleichklang.de, with Gebauer responsible for the scientific analysis. The full results are published on vegan.eu.

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