On Monday, financial website WalletHub released a roundup of the best cities for vegetarians and vegans. While a number of Lone Star metros made the top 30, Laredo was listed as the No. 1 town for vegans and vegetarians when it comes to affordability.
In the overall rankings Portland, Ore. claimed the top spot followed by Orlando, Fla.; Los Angeles, and Phoenix, Ariz., in order. Austin is the first Texas town to make the list at No. 5. Other Lone Star cities in the top 50 include El Paso, (No. 14), Plano (No. 15), Houston (No. 24) and San Antonio (No. 31).
A string of Texas cities fill spots No. 36 through No. 45 including Dallas (No. 36), Irving (No. 38), Lubbock (No. 38), Corpus Christi (No. 41) and Laredo (No. 45). Laredo was sandwiched between Sacramento, Calif., at No. 44 and Raleigh, N.C., at No. 46 with the Gateway City claiming the No. 1 spot for affordability on the list and markedly lower rankings in diversity, accessibility and quality (No. 98) and vegetarian lifestyle (No. 97).
Laredo also had the lowest percentage of restaurants serving vegetarian options, ranking 100 out of 100, and near the bottom, ranking No. 99 out of 100, with the lowest percentage of restaurants serving vegan options, ahead of only North Las Vegas, Nev.
Laredo also ranked near the bottom for salad shops per capita (No. 98) and vegetable nurseries per capita (No. 96).
To determine the rankings, WalletHub ranked the 100 most populous U.S. cities across three main categories, including affordability, what it called “vegetarian lifestyle,” as well as a category focused on diversity, accessibility and quality. The diversity, accessibility and quality metric includes factors such as the number of options serving vegetarian and vegan options, community gardens per capita, vegetarian cooking classes per capita and more.
The “vegetarian lifestyle” category includes metrics such as the availability of vegan and vegetarian festivals, the ranking on Grubhub’s list of the “Cities Most Likely to Order Vegetarian or Vegan,” the area’s fruit and vegetable consumption and more.