This report is the final installment of our Study of Current and Former Vegetarians and Vegans, focused on specific research questions.

This report marks the final installment of Faunalytics’ Study of Current and Former Vegetarians and Vegans, where we examine the habits, motivations, and challenges those who currently — or have in the past — consume a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Following the release of our initial findings from this research, we heard from researchers and advocates who had further questions that they thought our study might be able to answer. In response, we spent time mining the dataset to look for answers to these questions, which are presented in the attached report (Study of Current and Former Vegetarians and Vegans: Secondary Findings).

This report covers diverse ground, touching on former vegetarians/vegans’ eating patterns, including if they eat less meat than the U.S. population, if avoiding beef and pork is associated with a higher consumption of other animal products, and whether being motivated by animal protection is associated with eating fewer animal products. The research also touches on the extent to which current and former vegetarians/vegans’ motivations are singular or layered, as well as the role played by gender, age, and length of adherence. The report also examines the association between challenges former vegetarians/vegans faced with their diet and their interest in re-adopting it once more, as well as similarities and differences between vegetarians and vegans.

A supplement to this report (Study of Current and Former Vegetarians and Vegans: Companion to the Secondary Findings) can be downloaded below. This companion document offers additional detail about the consumption of animal products by former vegetarians/vegans, primarily through bar charts to give a sense of the full variation in the food frequency data.

Attachment 1: Study of Current and Former Vegetarians and Vegans: Secondary Findings (Note: this report last updated February 25, 2016.)

Attachment 2: Study of Current and Former Vegetarians and Vegans: Companion to the Secondary Findings