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Nutrient Adequacy of a Vegan Diet

To begin with, yes, there are undoubtedly some nutrient deficiencies with a higher prevalence in vegans and other nutrients that vegans typically or often consume below the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). This doesn't mean, however, that nutritional deficiencies are an inherent aspect of a vegan diet, or that it's impossible to attain sufficient nutrients while following this lifestyle.

All diets can lead to nutritional deficiencies when not done correctly. For example, over 41% of US adults are Vitamin D deficient.(1) The thing is, vegan diets can be nutritionally adequate; For all essential nutrients, you can find at least one study that found adequate intake or status of it in vegans. This is because vegans can have adequate intake and status of any nutrient, provided they eat the appropriate foods, or, in some cases, supplement correctly. "Do vegans necessarily get enough of nutrient x"? is a largely irrelevant question, as opposed to "can vegans get enough of nutrient x"?

Terms
Status:
The levels/concentrations of a nutrient or biomarker of a nutrient in one's blood, urine, hair, etc. (usually just blood ), as opposed to intake.
ssEstimated Average Requirement (EAR):
Average daily level of intake estimated to meet the requirements of 50% of healthy individuals.
Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA):
Average daily level of intake estimated to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all (97–98%) healthy individuals; often used to plan nutritionally adequate diets for individuals.
Adequate Intake (AI):
AI are set when there is insufficient data to establish an RDA/EAR. AIs typically have only small amounts of evidence behind them or are simply assumed based on average intakes in healthy populations. Intakes below AIs don't necessarily indicate inadequacy. AIs are common for nutrients with extremely rare deficiency, which is what makes it hard to figure out what levels of intake are too low.