{"id":548341,"date":"2025-11-04T11:33:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T11:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/548341\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T11:33:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T11:33:18","slug":"vapers-overtake-smokers-for-first-time-in-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/548341\/","title":{"rendered":"Vapers overtake smokers for first time in Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For the first time in Great Britain, there are more over-16s using vapes or e-cigarettes than smoking cigarettes, according to the Office for National Statistics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Some 5.4 million adults use vapes daily or occasionally, compared with 4.9 million using cigarettes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ons.gov.uk\/releases\/adultsmokinghabitsintheuk2024#publications\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:an ONS survey for 2024 suggests;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">an ONS survey for 2024 suggests<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Daily use of vapes is most common among 25-49 year olds, with rising use among women.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The popularity of cigarette smoking has been falling for the past decade as the harmful effects of tobacco encouraged many to quit, while less risky vape use has been rising &#8211; particularly among younger age groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/better-health\/quit-smoking\/ready-to-quit-smoking\/vaping-to-quit-smoking\/vaping-myths-and-the-facts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:the NHS says;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">the NHS says<\/a>, since cigarettes release thousands of chemicals when they burn, many of which are poisonous and can cause cancer. Switching to vaping reduces those risks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The ONS&#8217;s Opinions and Lifestyle Survey suggests that 10% of adults aged 16 and over currently use an e-cigarette every day or occasionally &#8211; slightly more than the 9.1% who say they currently smoke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The number saying they&#8217;ve given up smoking has risen &#8211; 74.2% in 2024, up from 70.3% in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Back in the 1970s, less than 30% had quit the habit. At that time, nearly half of the population were smokers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But much has changed since then. In 2006-2007, a ban on smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces was introduced and in 2015, a ban on smoking in cars with children was brought in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">More recently in 2017, plain cigarette packaging was introduced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">And government legislation currently progressing through parliament will soon mean anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 will not be legally allowed to buy tobacco in the UK.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Rules on how vapes are packaged and displayed in shops are also set to be tightened over concerns that the devices are appealing to children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The ONS survey suggests 6.7% of people aged 16 and over in Great Britain use a vape or e-cigarette every day, up from 5.9% in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Another 3.3% say they use one occasionally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This equates to 5.4 million current vape users, a rise from 5.1 million in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The use of e-cigarettes &#8220;daily or occasionally&#8221; remained highest among 16 to 24 year olds in Great Britain in 2024 at 13.0%. But this is down from 15.8% in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in Great Britain, there are more over-16s using vapes or e-cigarettes than smoking cigarettes,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,15165,712,175960,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-548341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-office-for-national-statistics","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-smoking-cigarettes","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115491216114730319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}