For the very first time, more adults in Great Britain are using vapes than are smoking cigarettes.
New data from the Office for National Statistics show that 5.4 million people over 16 were vaping daily or occasionally in 2024, while 4.9 million were smoking. That’s 10 percent of the population vaping, with 9.1 percent smoking—a figure that’s down from 10.5 percent in 2023.
Daily vaping is most common among adults between the ages of 25-49. Vaping fell slightly among men from 2023-24, but rose among women.
Other data indicate that 55 percent of those who vape formerly smoked and no longer do. Another 40 percent are engaging in dual use—which typically means they’re smoking less than they were, and often means they’re on a path to quitting cigarettes. The majority of Brits who manage to quit smoking use vapes to help them do so.
British tobacco harm reduction expert Clive Bates, of Counterfactual Consulting, described the vaping-smoking crossover point as “a massive milestone” on the way to a smoke-free future for the United Kingdom.
“This is consumers figuring it out for themselves, and making life-altering behavior changes.”
“Everyone with a stake in public health should be delighted and encourage the process to go much further and faster,” he told Filter.
The ONS data confirmed that smoking rates remain highest among people working in “routine and manual” occupations (18.8 percent), and those defined as unemployed (17.5 percent).
The national trajectory in ditching lethal combustibles in favor of safer nicotine products has been helped by the UK’s early pro-harm reduction policies, from giving out free vapes to people who smoke, to the National Health Service encouraging people to make the switch. The message, as established by a landmark Public Health England review in 2015, was clear: Vapes are much safer than cigarettes.
“Consumers are now doing this for themselves, on their own initiative and at their own expense,” Bates said. “The more people switch out of cigarettes, the more others will try it, and the faster the process will go. This is consumers figuring it out for themselves, and making life-altering behavior changes.”
This combination of enlightened policies and consumer resolve established the UK as a world leader in tobacco harm reduction and led to remarkable progress over the course of a decade. Back in 2014, 18.8 percent of British adults smoked while just 3.7 percent vaped.
But the dramatic reversal has come under threat in recent years, with the rise of hostile political and media messaging about vapes. According to Action and Smoking and Health (ASH UK), 53 percent of people who currently smoke have been misled into believing that vaping is as harmful as smoking or worse.
Access to harm reduction is simultaneously being hampered. In June, a national ban on disposable vapes—low-barrier options, particularly popular among low-income groups that smoke at high rates—took effect.
“The main danger to this consumer-led revolution comes from the very people who should be supporting it but insist on standing in the way.”
Meanwhile, the UK government is still trying to get its Tobacco and Vapes Bill through parliament. Advocates warn that the legislation entails numerous restrictions on vapes, including powers to ban the flavors that are key to helping many people quit smoking. The bill would also make it illegal for anyone born after 2008 to buy tobacco. In October, more than 1,200 health professionals wrote to the government, calling for it be swiftly pushed through.
Bates has been highly critical of the bill, arguing that it addresses the wrong targets and would impede tobacco harm reduction.
“The main danger to this consumer-led revolution comes from the very people who should be supporting it but insist on standing in the way,” he said, adding that far too many politicians, officials and other professionals see vaping as a “threat” rather than an “opportunity.”
“The thing we need is for those obstructing progress to get out of the way and to find something useful to do,” Bates continued. “They aren’t adding anything, just pushing people towards illicit markets and breaking small businesses.”
Nonetheless, he finds the new statistics hugely encouraging. “I would like to see everyone now get behind this momentum and make smoking obsolete by 2035. That’s achievable, but it means focusing on smoking above all else.”
Photograph by Vaporesso via Unsplash