UK Smoking Rate Falls Below 10 Percent as Vaping Remains More Common

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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that 9.8 percent of UK adults aged 18 and older smoked cigarettes in 2025 , down from 10.6 percent in 2024.

In 2011, when the current survey series began, 20.2 percent of adults smoked.

In Great Britain, approximately 5.4 million individuals aged 16 and older (9.9 percent of adults) reported using e-cigarettes everyday or occasionally in 2025.

That compares with 4.8 million smokers, or 8.7 percent, measured by the same survey.

The Annual Population Survey measures smoking among adults aged 18 and older throughout the UK.

The Opinions and Lifestyle Survey tracks smoking and vaping among individuals aged 16 and older in Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland.

Because their populations and methodologies differ, the headline UK smoking rate cannot be directly compared with the Tremendous Britain vaping rate.

E-cigarette use was largely unchanged from 2024, when 10 percent of adults reported vaping.

Vaping was most common among adults aged 25 to 34, with 16.4 percent reporting current use.

Smoking, meanwhile, was highest among adults aged 45 to 54, at 12.4 percent.

The decline in smoking coincides with the growing popularity of vaping, although the population statistics cannot establish how much vaping contributed .

The proportion of people who had ever smoked regularly and subsequently quit stood at 74.1 percent in 2025, compared with 54.6 percent in 2014.

The new figures arrive as Britain begins taxing vaping products.

The government's Vaping Products Duty , which took effect on Oct.

1, imposes a tax of £2.20 per 10 mL of vaping liquid, including nicotine-free products.

Whether the country can sustain that progress while making vaping more expensive will be an significant test of its tobacco-control policies.

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My smoking journey shifted to vaping in 2011, sparking a mission to make vaping accessible for all.

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