TABLE 1.

Prevalence of vegetarian and nonvegetarian diets among Indian mothers by location, religion, caste, and wealth¹

		Maternal vegetarian status
	n 2	Nonvegetarian	Lactovegetarian	Lacto-ovovegetarian	Lactopescatarian	Vegan
All households	223, 040	0.722 ± 0.448	0.227 ± 0.419	0.034 ± 0.18	0.006 ± 0.079	0.011 ± 0.106
Urban households	52,906	0.741 ± 0.438	0.209 ± 0.406	0.039 ± 0.194	0.003 ± 0.054	0.009 ± 0.092
Rural households	170,134	0.715 ± 0.451	0.234 ± 0.423	0.031 ± 0.174	0.008 ± 0.087	0.012 ± 0.111
Hindu mother	161,610	0.668 ± 0.471	0.273 ± 0.446	0.038 ± 0.191	0.008 ± 0.087	0.014 ± 0.116
Muslim mother	34,988	0.972 ± 0.165	0.014 ± 0.116	0.012 ± 0.107	0.001 ± 0.036	0.002 ± 0.039
Christian mother	17,727	0.982 ± 0.131	0.008 ± 0.088	0.005 ± 0.074	0.003 ± 0.057	0.001 ± 0.033
Sikh mother	3669	0.247 ± 0.431	0.624 ± 0.484	0.105 ± 0.307	0.001 ± 0.031	0.023 ± 0.149
Buddhist mother	2103	0.921 ± 0.269	0.038 ± 0.19	0.030 ± 0.17	0.000 ± 0.008	0.011 ± 0.105
Jain mother	188	0.052 ± 0.222	0.894 ± 0.309	0.023 ± 0.15	0.000 ± 0.000	0.031 ± 0.175
Other Religion mother	2755	0.947 ± 0.223	0.041 ± 0.199	0.003 ± 0.059	0.004 ± 0.06	0.004 ± 0.065
Scheduled caste	42,222	0.787 ± 0.409	0.159 ± 0.366	0.037 ± 0.19	0.005 ± 0.071	0.011 ± 0.105
Scheduled tribe	43,997	0.824 ± 0.381	0.132 ± 0.339	0.021 ± 0.144	0.007 ± 0.081	0.016 ± 0.124
Other backwards caste	88,115	0.680 ± 0.466	0.264 ± 0.441	0.036 ± 0.187	0.008 ± 0.087	0.012 ± 0.109
Other caste	39, 011	0.648 ± 0.478	0.302 ± 0.459	0.035 ± 0.184	0.005 ± 0.071	0.010 ± 0.097
No caste	9695	0.912 ± 0.283	0.070 ± 0.255	0.009 ± 0.094	0.003 ± 0.053	0.006 ± 0.078
Poorest quintile	54,791	0.810 ± 0.392	0.145 ± 0.353	0.018 ± 0.132	0.013 ± 0.111	0.014 ± 0.117
2nd quintile	49,460	0.743 ± 0.437	0.205 ± 0.403	0.031 ± 0.174	0.008 ± 0.087	0.013 ± 0.115
3rd quintile	43,696	0.728 ± 0.445	0.222 ± 0.416	0.034 ± 0.18	0.004 ± 0.065	0.012 ± 0.108
4th quintile	39,927	0.709 ± 0.454	0.241 ± 0.428	0.037 ± 0.189	0.004 ± 0.061	0.009 ± 0.094
Richest quintile	35,166	0.591 ± 0.492	0.346 ± 0.476	0.052 ± 0.223	0.002 ± 0.044	0.008 ± 0.09

¹Authors’ estimates of means and SDs (mean ± SD) for key variables from the NFHS 2015–2016 data by maternal vegetarian type or nonvegetarianism. All statistics use NFHS survey weights.

² n denotes the number of observations with nonmissing data.

NFHS, National Family Health Survey.