Smoking drops to lowest level while vape usage rises

The number of adults smoking in the UK has dropped to the lowest recorded level while vape usage increases.

According to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, smoking amongst adults in the UK is at its lowest point since the records began in 2011 while e-cigarette usage is on the rise.

The data found that of the UK population in 2022, 12.9% of people aged 18 years and over, or around 6.4 million people, smoked cigarettes.

People aged 25 to 34 years had the highest proportion of current smokers in the UK (16.3%) while those aged 65 years and over had the lowest (8.3%) in 2022.

On the vaping side, 8.7% of respondents, or around 4.5 million adults, said they currently used an e-cigarette daily or occasionally; this is an increase from 2021 where 7.7% of people reported daily or occasional e-cigarette use.

E-cigarette use was found to be the highest among those aged 16 to 24 years in Great Britain; the percentage of people in this age group who were daily or occasional vapers in 2022 has increased to 15.5% compared with 11.1% in 2021.

The study also found a statistically significant increase in the proportion of women aged 16 to 24 years who were daily e-cigarette users in 2022 (6.7%), compared with 2021 (1.9%).

The proportion of daily and occasional vapers continued to be highest among current cigarette smokers (27.1%) and ex-cigarette smokers (16.5%). Around 2.4% of people who have never smoked reported that they were daily or occasional e-cigarette users in 2022, an increase from 1.5% in 2021. Among those who have never smoked, respondents reporting occasional e-cigarette use showed a statistically significant increase in 2022 (1.8%) compared with 2021 (0.8%).

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Commenting on the figures, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) chief executive Deborah Arnott praised the reduction in smoking rate but said they were not falling “fast enough to deliver on the government’s ambition of 5% or less by 2030”. She called on the government to step up support for those looking to quit.

On vaping, Arnott expressed concern over the rise in younger people trying it. “The growth in vaping among adult smokers and ex-smokers is welcome as vaping is a very successful aid to quitting smoking. However, like the ASH surveys the ONS data show a worrying growth in vaping among teens and young adults.

“The government’s response to the consultation on youth vaping due imminently must contain concrete measures to prohibit child-friendly branding, and put products out of sight and out of reach in shops, as well as a tax on the pocket money priced disposable vapes most popular with children.”