Leitrim named as second most veggie-friendly county in Ireland

Ireland’s food scene is becoming more and more vegetarian friendly; it ranked among the top ten countries in the world for veganism in 2020, while Dublin appeared 26th in the world’s most vegetarian friendly cities list in 2023.

It’s also estimated that every month, there are 3,600 searches in Ireland for ‘vegetarian recipes’ as well as 12,100 for ‘vegetarian restaurants’, showing just how in demand veggie options are across the country.

But where exactly in Ireland is the most vegetarian-friendly? Data experts from HelloFresh Ireland ranked each county by how well they cater to vegetarians.

The top veggie-friendly counties have now been revealed - and surprisingly, Dublin doesn’t make the top three!

Taking the top spot is Galway, closely followed by Leitrim and Cork.

Ireland’s Most Vegetarian-Friendly Counties

County..........Total score
Galway............ 100.00
Leitrim.............92.87
Cork................92.67
Kerry...............84.23
Dublin.............65.64
Mayo...............64.75
Sligo................64.14
Clare...............64.01
Donegal...........59.45
Wicklow...........57.90

Each county was scored on its number of veggie-friendly restaurants, number of vegetarian takeaway options, as well as how many locals are searching for vegetarian recipes online.

County Kerry has the most veggie-friendly restaurants per capita, with 17 restaurants per 10,000 of the population. This was followed by Galway with 14 restaurants per 10,000 people and Cork with 13.

Longford had the least veggie-friendly restaurants per capita, at just 3 per 10,000 of the population.

Surprisingly, Leitrim has the most vegetarian takeaway options per capita, at 23 per 10,000 of the population. This was followed by Galway with 10 and Kerry with 9, while Carlow had the least veggie-friendly takeaway options.

Commenting on the data, Head of Culinary at HelloFresh Ireland, Hannah Duxbury, said: “Ireland is often recognised as one of the world’s most veggie-friendly countries, but most of the time it’s Dublin’s vegetarian food scene that people look at when really, Ireland has so many more counties that are great for vegetarians.