your impact
A number that actually holds up.
How many days a week do you eat plant-based?
Three days a week means about 7 animals a year are not killed for you.
Out of roughly 17 per person, per year, in the UK.That's zero because nothing's chosen yet - pick at least one day above and watch both change.
"Carbon" here means the greenhouse gases released growing, transporting and producing your food - the gases that heat up the planet. Less carbon means less of that, from what's on your plate.
Made with your own number, ready for stories or a group chat.
Built on 1.20 billion animals slaughtered in the UK in 2023, about 17.4 per person. The popular "365 a year" figure doesn't hold up, so it isn't used. How it's worked out is below.
where these numbers come from
You will see "going vegan saves 365 animals a year" all over the internet. I have not used it - I would rather give you a number that holds up when someone challenges it. Here's exactly how these numbers are built, tap any of these for the sourcing.
the land-animal number →
1.20 billion animals were slaughtered in the UK in 2023, which works out at roughly 17.4 per person per year. That is the figure I have scaled here. It is almost entirely chickens, because chickens are small and people eat a lot of them.
the carbon and land figures →
From Poore and Nemecek's 2018 study in Science, still the largest analysis of its kind: a fully plant-based diet cuts food-related emissions by around 73% and the farmland needed to feed you by around 76%. I have scaled those proportionally to the days you picked.
why fish aren't counted →
Not because they do not matter, but because nobody can honestly tell you how many individual fish are behind a portion. Estimates range from dozens to hundreds. Adding a made-up number would make everything else here less trustworthy. The real figure is higher than what you see above.
this is an average, not a receipt →
It assumes your plant-based days replace a typical UK diet. Yours might be heavier or lighter on meat, so treat it as a rough shape rather than a precise count.
the honest bit about supply and demand →
Strictly, one person not buying a chicken does not mean one fewer chicken is farmed. Supermarkets order on forecasts, and there is slack in the system. Economists who have looked at this reckon the effect is real but less than one-to-one, somewhere in the region of 0.3 to 0.7 of an animal per animal not bought. I have not applied that discount above, because nobody knows the exact multiplier and the range is wide - but you should know it exists. Your effect is real. It is also indirect, and slower than you would like. What is direct is this: you stop paying for it. Whatever the supply chain does next, your money is no longer in it.
why going vegan matters
Everything above is about food specifically. If the numbers made you curious rather than defensive, the honest next step isn't a lecture, it's a starting point: PETA's free vegan starter kit has recipes, meal plans and tips to make the first weeks easier. Or read a little more on the Learn page first.
And if food isn't where you want to start at all, that's fine too - brand check and the shop cover the cosmetics and household side, no kitchen changes required.