One argument that vegans face too many times to even count is "what does it even matter". And I kind of get that, what kind of an impact one person can make?
So let's dive into the impact by numbers and data.
1. Animals spared
Average annual consumption → animal impact (per person)
Rough global/Western averages suggest:
- ~25–35 chickens
- ~1–2 pigs (in “equivalent meat consumption”)
- ~200–300 fish (very variable, but fish numbers are large due to small size)
- plus hundreds of animal-years of hens and dairy cows indirectly
Switching to vegan for 1 year avoids roughly:
👉 ~100–200 animal lives directly (mostly fish + chickens)
👉 plus large indirect reductions in dairy/egg animal suffering
Fish dominate the numbers because they are small and eaten frequently in mass quantities.
2. Climate impact (CO₂ equivalent)
A typical omnivorous diet:
- ~2.5–3.5 tonnes CO₂e/year
A vegan diet: - ~1.0–1.5 tonnes CO₂e/year
Savings:
👉 ~1.5–2.5 tonnes CO₂e per year
That is roughly equivalent to:
- driving ~6,000–10,000 km in a petrol car
- or 1–2 round-trip flights from Europe to Southern Europe
3. Land use savings
Animal agriculture is extremely land-intensive.
Per person per year switching to vegan:
👉 saves roughly 1,000–2,000 m² of land
(that’s ~0.1–0.2 hectares)
This land can instead:
- rewild into forest
- store carbon
- support biodiversity
4. Water savings
Depends heavily on region, but typical estimates:
👉 300,000–1,000,000 liters of water saved per year
(Big range because beef/dairy dominate water use in some diets)
5. Biodiversity impact
Harder to quantify, but major mechanisms include:
- reduced deforestation (especially soy feed + pasture)
- reduced ocean pressure (less fishing)
- lower pesticide/fertilizer use
A simplified way to think about it:
👉 One vegan year reduces pressure on multiple ecosystems simultaneously, especially forests, rivers, and oceans.
Simple summary
If one person goes vegan for a year, a reasonable estimate is:
- 🐟🐔 ~100–200 animals spared
- 🌍 ~1.5–2.5 tons CO₂ saved
- 🌱 ~1,000–2,000 m² land spared
- 💧 hundreds of thousands of liters of water saved
So you tell me, does it matter?