Sports nutrition brand MyProtein has released new research which ranks Australia’s most vegan-friendly cities based on vegan-friendly restaurants, cafes, health food stores, veganism-related searches and percentage of traffic to its own vegan product pages.

It’s estimated that nearly 2.5 million Australians (that’s 12.1 per cent of the population) have taken up a vegetarian diet, with around 500,000 going fully plant-based and embracing veganism.

Veganism is clearly on the up all around the world, with vegan alternatives popping up in more and more supermarkets and restaurant menus, with an estimated 8.7 per cent of new products in Australia being labeled as vegan or having no animal products, all of which are constantly improving in quality and taste.

As well as seeing more plant-based products on our shelves, you only have to look at the high street of any major town or city in Australia to see that there are far more vegan-friendly eateries and shops than there were even a few years ago, and even fast-food giants such as Maccas and Hungry Jack’s are launching vegan options, all of which make it easier than ever to ditch animal products from your diet.

1. Sunshine Coast

With 305 restaurants, 128 cafes and 167 organic health food shops in an area of just under 350,000 people, Queensland’s Sunshine Coast rank’s as the number one vegan-friendly city in Australia.

2. Gold Coast

Just the other side of Brisbane, Queensland’s Gold Coast came in second place, and much like the Sunshine Coast boasts high numbers of vegan-friendly establishments (per person), with more arriving all the time, as well as a relatively high number of residents turning to Google to learn more about veganism (116 per 10,000 people).

3. Sydney

Sydney is by far the city with the most vegan establishments, and still scores highly when you take into account the fact that it is home to around five million people too.

You can find more information about the vegan-friendly rating of other cities here.