What can Google Trends and Wikipedia-Pageview analysis tell us about sustainability and sustainable diets?

Abstract

The study aimed to determine the public interest in sustainability and sustainability diet-related topics. Wikipedia Pageviews analysis and Google Trends data were used for the relative internet search popularity on “sustainability” and diet-related topics from 1 July 2015 to 1 May 2023. “Sustainability” was particularly popular in European countries. “Climatarian diet” was a new term, and only three countries were searched. Relative Search Volume increased most dynamically for the topics “Sustainability”, “Sustainable diet”, “Plantbased diet”, “Mediterranean diet”, and “Pescetarianism”, while page views increased most dynamically for the topics “Plant-based diet”, “Flexitarianism”, and “Mediterranean diet”. According to both Wikipedia and Google Trends, there was a positive correlation between “Sustainability” and “Healthy diet”, “Plant-based diet”, “Mediterranean diet”, “Veganism”, “Raw foodism”, and “Pescetarianism”. Understanding the public’s interest in sustainability and sustainable diets is critical to developing and choosing strategies for transitioning to sustainable diets.