Bakersfield Among Top 20 Best Cities for Vegans & Vegetarians

(Photo credit El Portal)

With October 1 being World Vegetarian Day and November 1 being World Vegan Day, and with 15.5 million U.S. adults having a vegetarian or vegan diet, the personal-finance website WalletHub released its 2022’s Best Cities for Vegans & Vegetarians report on September 26. That report ranks Bakersfield 17th among the nation's 100 largest cities.

The only California cities that ranked higher than Bakersfield were Los Angeles (No. 3), San Francisco (No, 7) and San Diego (No. 9).

To determine the best and cheapest places for following a plant-based diet, WalletHub compared the 100 largest cities across 17 key indicators of vegan- and vegetarian-friendliness. The data set ranges from the share of restaurants serving meatless options to the cost of groceries for vegetarians to salad shops per capita.

With 1 = Best, and 50 = Average, Bakersfield ranked in several key categories as follows:

54th – Farmers Markets & CSA Programs per capita
39th – Juice & Smoothie Bars per capita
32nd – Vegetable Nurseries per capita
11th – Certified Organic Farms per capita