The number of people vaping has reached record levels in Great Britain with an estimated 4.3 million people who are regular vapers, according to a report by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
The data suggests 8.3% of adults in England, Wales and Scotland vape, up from 1.7% a decade ago.
Of the 4.3 million vapers, about 2.4 million are ex-smokers, 1.5 million current smokers and 350,000 have never smoked a cigarette. Cheeseman said vaping among the latter tended to be “rare” and “experimental”.
The report also shows e-cigarettes were becoming especially popular among young people, with 18- to 24-year-olds the biggest consumers in 2022, at 11%. This has grown since 2021, when they had the lowest vaping rate at 5%. People 55 and over now have the lowest rate, at 5.9%.
The report found 28% of current smokers had never tried an e-cigarette, with 21% saying they did not want to substitute one addiction for another. In addition, 23% thought vaping was not similar enough to smoking and 10% said they were concerned e-cigarettes are not safe enough. A third of adults said they believed vaping was more, or equally as harmful, as smoking.
In 2022, 35% of current vapers also smoked. Among this group, those who vaped daily smoked fewer cigarettes than those who did so less frequently.
One in five former smokers said they used a vape to help them quit, but more than half (56%) who are ex-smokers said they had been vaping for more than three years.
Vapers said the main reason they used e-cigarettes was for quitting smoking and to prevent them from returning to smoking, while 14% said they used vapes because they enjoyed it and 11% to save money.
