Things get clearer that vape is a healthier and better nicotine delivery alternative compared to cigarette. New data published by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) shows as vaping increases and smoking declines, there are now around half as many vapers as smokers. In 2019 there are an estimated 3.6 million people vaping in Great Britain compared to 7.2 million smokers in the UK in 2018.

According to the GOV.UK: “Smoking remains the largest single risk factor for death and years of life lived in ill-health and is a leading cause of health inequalities in England and in other parts of the world. Alternative nicotine delivery devices, such as nicotine vaping products, could play a crucial role in reducing the enormous health burden caused by cigarette smoking.”

ASH-Youth survey data (11 to 18 year olds) showed:

smoking prevalence (including those who smoked sometimes or more than once a week) in March 2020 was 6.7% (compared with 6.3% in March 2019) and has changed little since 2015 when it was 7.1%

little change in levels of vaping over the last few years with current vaping (at least once per month) prevalence being 4.8% in March 2020, the same as in March 2019

The ITC Youth survey data (16 to 19 year olds) showed:

smoking prevalence at 6.2% (defined as smoking more than 100 cigarettes in their life and having smoked in the past 30 days)

current vaping prevalence at 7.7% (defined as vaping on more than 10 days in their lifetime and having vaped in the past 30 days)

From the above surveys, we find out that smoking prevalence has dropped and vaping prevalence has a higher proportion than smoking prevalence among young people.

And the main reasons for vaping were to:

“give it a try”

“for fun/I like it”

“liking the flavours”

According to the GOV.UK: “Smoking prevalence among adults in England continues to fall and was between 13.8% and 16.0% depending on the survey, equating to about 6 to 7 million smokers.

Vaping prevalence was lower than smoking prevalence across all groups and continues to be around 6% (between 5.5% and 6.3%), equating to about 2.7 million adult vapers in England.

The most common reasons for vaping reported in the ASH-Adult survey were to:

quit (29.7%),

stay off (19.4%)

or reduce (11.2%) smoking tobacco.

In the OPN 2019 survey, 52.8% of current vapers reported vaping to quit smoking.”

In the UK, in 2019, 14.1% of people aged 18 years and above smoked cigarettes, which equates to around 6.9 million people in the population, based on our estimate from the Annual Population Survey (APS). The proportion of current smokers in the UK has fallen significantly from 14.7% in 2018 to 14.1% in 2019.

In the UK, 6.4% of OPN(Opinions and Lifestyle Survey) respondents in 2020, based on data collected in June, July, and September, said they currently used an e-cigarette, which equates to nearly 3.3 million adults in the population.