Vaping rises among non-smokers as use shifts to people in their late twenties and thirties

More than one million adults who have never smoked now use e-cigarettes, as vaping becomes more common than cigarette smoking for the second consecutive year.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics estimate that 1.1 million people who have never smoked used a vape daily or occasionally in 2025, an increase from approximately 940,000 the previous year.

Adults aged 25 to 34 are now the group most likely to vape, overtaking those aged 16 to 24. E-cigarette use among 25 to 34-year-olds rose from 12.9% in 2024 to 16.4% in 2025, making it the only age group to record an increase.

The ONS said this could reflect existing users growing older, increasing popularity among people in this age group or a combination of both.

An estimated 5.4 million people aged 16 and over in Great Britain now vape, equivalent to 9.9% of the population. This compares with approximately 4.8 million smokers across the UK, or 8.7% of adults.

The figures present a complicated public health picture. Vaping is considered substantially less harmful than smoking and can help existing smokers stop using cigarettes. Around one-third of current smokers also used e-cigarettes in 2025, while approximately one in five former smokers continued to vape.

However, health guidance is clear that people who do not smoke should not start vaping. Most products contain nicotine, which is addictive, and the long-term health effects of sustained e-cigarette use are not yet fully understood.

The increase among people who have never smoked will therefore intensify debate about whether brightly coloured packaging, sweet flavours and lifestyle marketing have created a new group of nicotine users rather than simply helping smokers quit.

The wider trend in cigarette use remains positive. Fewer than one in ten UK adults now smoke—the lowest proportion recorded—and almost three-quarters of people who had previously smoked regularly said they had stopped. Half of those who continued smoking said they intended to quit.

Smoking rates have fallen particularly sharply among younger adults. The proportion of 18 to 24-year-olds who smoke dropped from 25.7% in 2011 to 7.2% in 2025.

Those reductions represent significant progress, but the growth of vaping among people with no history of smoking creates a different challenge. Public health policy must continue making vaping accessible as a quitting aid while preventing an entirely new generation from becoming dependent on nicotine.

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