As many as 12 million Brits – nearly a quarter of the country – claim they will be vegetarian, vegan or pescatarian by the end of 2020.

Around 6.7 million people already say they follow a meat-free diet, so this would mean 5.3 million more joining them, according to a Finder.com survey.

However, last year’s numbers suggest these figures may be too optimistic.

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The same survey in 2019 concluded that 5.2 million Brits wanted to be meat-free by the end of 2019, while only 5% or 236,000 actually made the change.

If all who hope to made the change this year, it would mean an increase of 1.1 million vegans, 2.5 million vegetarians and 1.7 million pescatarians. These would represent increases of 97%, 73% and 79% over current figures.

Elsewhere the research revealed that 230,000 more females than males do not consume meat. Though 11% of males hope to go meat-free this year compared to only 9% of females.

Georgia-Rose Johnson, shopping and travel specialist at Finder.com, commented: “Although a lot of people seem to have struggled to make the permanent switch to a meat-free diet over the past 12 months, this year’s findings echo our previous research in showing that adopting a veggie diet is a high priority for the UK.

“Meat-free diets and being ‘flexitarian’ are getting more media exposure than ever so you would expect these positive trends to continue growing. If you don’t eat meat already, or are thinking of stopping, then Finder’s recent study into the most vegan-friendly city in the UK showed that most cities have a good range of options available for vegans.”