The Czech Republic ranks among most vegan and veggie-friendly places in Europe

Sirloin with dumplings and beef goulash often come to mind when you consider traditional Czech cuisine, but a new study suggests the Czech Republic is one of the most vegetarian and vegan-friendly countries in Europe.

Plant-based supplement company Mint looked into data from vegetarian food app Happycow to compare how many vegan and vegetarian restaurants there were compared to the population size of each European country.

The Czech Republic finished third behind Portugal and Iceland, with 232 vegetarian restaurants in the country, around 21.6 per million people.

The data was compared to a similar table from 2016 and showed that there has been a 58 percent increase in vegan or veggie restaurants in the country over the past four years.

Other countries in the top five include the UK and Luxembourg.

The report says that the Czech Republic being ranked so highly is a “surprise” because “as [they] move east along the European map [they saw] fewer veggie-friendly countries. The Czech Republic bucks this trend.”

Reacting to the study, a spokesperson for the Česká veganská společnost (Czech vegan society) said:

"There is of course a difference when it comes to offer in bigger cities such as Prague and smaller towns, where for example, plant-based food on restaurants menu can still be tricky to find."

"Nowadays, all the big retailers like Tesco, Albert and others have increased their offer and are making it easier for people who are following a plant-based diet fully or for different reasons are reducing their animal-based product consumption."