From: vprasad@uoft02.utoledo.edu
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg
Subject: rec.food.veg survey results - Part 1
Date: 26 Aug 92 19:20:13 EST
Organization: University of Toledo, Computer Services

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		STATISTICS OF VEGETARIANS (NAME YOUR DIET POLL)
================================================================================
From: mmc@unhd.unh.edu (Meg Cawley)
Subject: Name Your Diet POLL - RESULTS part 1

         This posting contains the statistics, a second posting contains the
comments from everyone (id info deleted). I found when trying to  force the
answers to 6) Main reason you're a veg: into number crunching, I'd lose a lot
of information. So that data is in a separate posting.

         There were 114 respondents. Not all people responded to all questions,
so I've given the results as the % of those who responded to the question.

         Percentages don't always add to 100 because of truncation `error'.

=====================NAME YOUR DIET POLL - RESULTS============================
Type of diet (respondents = 114)
============
   14.0 % a - vegan
    0.8   b - ovo-vegetarian
    7.8   c - lacto-vegetarian
   42.9   d - ovo-lacto-vegetarian
   14.0   e - vegetarian + fish
    7.0   f - vegetarian + fish + poultry
   10.5   g - not a vegetarian
    2.6   h - other 

         The `other' category included people who eat red meat, but no fish and
fowl, or no eggs or something. I was surprised there was only 1 ovo-veg, and
there were many more lacto-veg or vegans in comparison. As I expected, the
highest count was in the ovo-lacto-veg group. One respondent guessed there'd be
30% non-vegs. There are just less than 25% (groups e-h).

Gender Distribution (respondents = 113)

             Overall  Vegs (a-d)  Non-vegs(e-h)
   Male       57.5%     65.3%       42.0%
   Female     42.5%     34.7%       58.0%

         At first, I was surprised that the percentage of men was higher
overall. But, then I considered this could be "the nature of Usenet". Still,
quite impressive numbers, guys. All of the vegs I know are women (until this
poll, of course!).

Age Breakdown (respondents = 108)
	
             Overall  Vegs (a-d)  Non-vegs(e-h)
    Below 20    1.8%      1.4%        2.7%
    20 - 24    34.2      40.8%       21.6%
    25 - 29    33.3      29.5%       40.5%
    30 - 34    12.0      11.2%       13.5%
    35 - 39    12.0       9.8%       16.2%
    Over 39     6.4       7.0%        5.4%

         Ages ranged from 18 to 55. We mostly seem to be in our twenties. Not
much else to say about these - but they're interesting to look at.

Diet Duration (respondents = 93)

         The vegetarians have logged 502.31 years in the regime. This includes
7 respondents who are `lifer' vegetarians - born into that way of life, and
choosing to stick with it. All those years average out to about 7.3 years. In
the responses, quite a few people mentioned they'd 'turned veg' around EarthDay
1990.

         For the non-veg (but striving for it) group, there are a total of 71.6
years, giving an average of 2.9 years.

Location (respondents = 110)

   USA       78.1%
   Canada     9.0%
   UK         7.2%
   Australia  1.8%
   Scotland   1.8%
   Israel     0.9%
   Sweden     0.9%

   Tells more about the nature of Usenet than anything else, I guess!

One more stat:

         The percentage of people who pointed out my definition errors on the
original poll post: 23.6. Almost all those people were nice about it. But this
is the net, flames are to be expected! 

         Thanks so much to all who responded! I enjoyed doing this. Contrary to
some people's guesses, I am NOT a nutrition major or anything related. I was
just curious about the vegs out there.
   
         Please look for the second results posting for the reasons why people
have chosen vegetarianism - or are leaning that way. I'll hold on to the source
files for a while. Send me mail if you'd like any other stats.
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Newsgroups: rec.food.veg