Moving abroad usually means adjusting your palate along with your postcode, but for vegetarians and vegans, that adjustment can range from effortless to exhausting depending on where you land. Some countries have built entire food cultures around plant-based eating for centuries, while others are only now catching up thanks to shifting consumer habits and climate concerns. If you’re planning a relocation and don’t want to spend your first year hunting for a decent meat-free meal, these six nations consistently stand out as the easiest places on earth to live well without meat.
India: The Undisputed Global Leader
No country comes close to India when it comes to sheer vegetarian infrastructure and cultural acceptance. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, India has the highest percentage of vegetarians in the world, with 38% of the population identifying as vegetarian.[1] That’s not a niche subculture, it’s a mainstream way of eating woven into religion, regional cuisine, and daily restaurant menus from Mumbai street stalls to five-star hotels.
For expats, this translates into practical ease rarely found elsewhere. Grocery stores stock enormous ranges of lentils, paneer, and vegetable-based staples, and it’s common to find restaurants that are entirely vegetarian rather than just offering a token dish. The scale of India’s vegetarian population, driven largely by Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist dietary traditions, means newcomers rarely have to explain or justify their diet the way they might in more meat-centric countries.
Israel: Tel Aviv’s Vegan Capital Status
Israel has quietly become one of the most plant-based friendly countries on the planet, and the numbers back it up. World Atlas found that Israel has the second highest population of vegetarians, at 13%.[2] About 13% of Israel’s population is vegetarian, including 7.2% of men and 9.8% of women, with Judaism credited as a major influence since it restricts the consumption of certain animals.[1]
Tel Aviv in particular has earned an outsized reputation among expats and digital nomads. Tel Aviv is known as the vegan capital of the world, with 400 vegan and vegan-friendly kitchens.[1] The country is home to hundreds of restaurants offering vegan meals, and in 2014 Tel Aviv hosted the biggest vegan festival in the world where 15,000 people attended, a city that continues to rank as a favorite destination for vegan travelers.[2] Interestingly, this exists alongside a population that also loves poultry, proving that vegetarian infrastructure and meat culture aren’t mutually exclusive.
Taiwan: Buddhist Roots, Modern Convenience
Taiwan doesn’t get the international attention of India or Israel, but expats who move there quickly discover why it belongs on this list. Taiwan rarely tops global headlines for its food culture, yet it consistently ranks among the most vegetarian-friendly places on earth, much of this traces back to Buddhist dietary customs that have shaped local cooking for generations, and World Atlas found that Taiwan ranks third globally for vegetarian population share, at around 12%.[3]
What makes Taiwan especially practical for newcomers is how normalized meat-free eating has become in everyday life. Vegetarian buffet restaurants, often marked with a swastika-like Buddhist symbol, are common enough in Taiwanese cities that finding a meat-free meal rarely requires any planning at all.[3] For an expat juggling a new job, a new language, and a new apartment, not having to plan every meal in advance is a genuine quality-of-life upgrade.
The United Kingdom: A Quiet European Leader
The UK rarely gets mentioned in the same breath as India or Israel, but its statistics tell a compelling story for anyone considering a move there. Six percent of people in the UK followed a vegetarian diet in 2025, a figure that has been climbing steadily over the past decade as plant-based eating moved from a niche interest into the mainstream.[2] That shift shows no sign of slowing down either.
Finder’s research found that 6.3% of UK adults plan to follow a vegan diet in 2026, which is about 3.5 million people, including those already vegan and those who weren’t vegan at the end of 2025 but plan to start this year.[2] For expats, the practical upside is geographic spread rather than just big-city concentration. Small villages and big cities alike now tend to have at least one vegetarian-friendly option, a shift that would have seemed unlikely just fifteen years ago.[2] London itself has become something of a global benchmark, having been named the world’s top city for vegans multiple years running by major food-discovery platforms.
Germany: Berlin’s Plant-Based Boom
Germany’s meat-heavy reputation, think bratwurst and schnitzel, masks a genuinely fast-growing plant-based movement that has made life considerably easier for vegetarian expats. The number of vegetarians in Germany rose from 5.29 million in 2016 to 8.12 million in 2023, while the number of vegans increased from 0.8 million to 1.52 million during the same period.[4] That’s a substantial shift in less than a decade.
Berlin, in particular, has built a reputation that draws vegetarian and vegan expats specifically for its food scene. Berlin’s vegetarian and vegan populations are growing steadily and many cities in the country are adopting Berlin’s attitude of sustainable food consumption, and according to HappyCow, currently there are nearly 500 vegan restaurants in Germany, over 100 of which are in the German capital alone.[5] The city also hosts one of the continent’s largest dedicated vegan festivals, reinforcing its status as a landing spot for plant-based newcomers. Beyond Berlin, mainstream German supermarkets now routinely stock meat-substitute products from established domestic brands, meaning expats don’t have to hunt down specialty shops just to cook a normal dinner.
Thailand: Buddhist Compassion Meets Nomad Culture
Thailand presents a more nuanced case than the other countries on this list, but it earns its spot through a powerful combination of religious tradition, tourist infrastructure, and a booming digital nomad scene centered on Chiang Mai. Vegetarians and vegans alike are generally well-accepted in Thailand, and this way of living is seen as a compassionate pathway that adheres to purist Buddhist philosophy.[6] That said, everyday Thai cooking does lean heavily on fish sauce and other animal-derived seasonings, so expats need a bit more vigilance than in, say, India.
Chiang Mai specifically has emerged as a favorite base for plant-based expats and remote workers. Chiang Mai has emerged as a top destination for digital nomads seeking a healthy, plant-based lifestyle, marrying centuries-old food traditions with a contemporary wellness scene.[7] The city’s temple culture reinforces this atmosphere too, since as a city of over 200 temples and deeply Buddhist in identity, concepts of compassion and non-harm are part of everyday life.[7] Add to that the annual nine-day Vegetarian Festival, when walking down streets where every single stall is selling vegan food for nine days[8] becomes the norm nationwide, and it’s easy to see why so many plant-based expats choose to settle in northern Thailand specifically.
