The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released the data from their Annual Population Survey (APS) in the latest edition of the ‘Adult smoking habits in the UK’ statistical bulletin, which is the official measure for smoking prevalence in England. The data has revealed that smoking rates are continuing to fall year-on-year as more people are using e-cigarettes as an alternative.
Smoking rates drop to 12.9% in the UK
The data, which is produced in partnership with the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (OHID), has identified that the smoking rate for people aged 18 and over in the UK was down to 12.9%, or 6.4 million people, in 2022. This is down from 13.3% the year before and shows a huge decrease from the 20.2% recorded in 2011 when records began.
The survey is a cross-governmental approach which aims to improve the available statistics on tobacco and e-cigarette use in the UK and is used to track the progress against the Tobacco Control Plan for England and the Khan review.
The Tobacco Control Plan aimed to reduce smoking prevalence in adults in England to 12% by the end of 2022, and the survey has identified that England has the lowest rates in the UK at 12.7%, suggesting that there is certainly progress being made towards this goal. Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales recorded rates of 13.9%, 14%, and 14.1%, respectively.
The magnitude of these statistics become all the more clear when compared to other countries where tobacco control and smoking prevention is not considered as much of a priority as it is here in the UK. For example, the German Survey on Smoking Behaviour (DEBRA) which tracks the smoking prevalence through bi-monthly surveys suggests that at the end of 2022 35.5% of those over the age of 14 were smokers. This has risen substantially following the pandemic, with Germany seeing an almost 10% rise between the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the end of 2022.
Although the UK saw a brief rise in smoking rates during the pandemic, public health authorities were quick to adapt stop smoking services and campaigns to online and remote services, and to highlight that there was actually no better time to quit smoking for the sake of your health.
4.5 million UK vapers
The bulletin also included information gathered in the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) which found that 8.7% of people in Britain currently use an e-cigarette either daily or occasionally, which equates to a whopping 4.5 million vapers.
This is up from 7.7% of people in 2021 and continues the clear correlation between the increased popularity of e-cigarettes and the continuing decline in smoking rates.
These vapers are predominantly either current cigarette smokers, who are also often referred to as dual-users as they use both an e-cigarette and traditional cigarettes, and ex-smokers, with only around 2.4% of never smokers reporting daily or occasional vaping.
Additionally, the survey found that 45.4% of people who currently smoke stated that they intend to quit smoking, with 22% hoping to quit in the next 3 months at the time of the interview.
The switch from smoking to vaping
OHID confirmed in their Nicotine vaping in England: 2022 evidence update that vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking, and the most recent Cochrane report has identified e-cigarettes as being twice as effective as nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) which are often prescribed to patients, like nicotine patches and gum.
In the years since e-cigarettes became widely available in 2011 smoking prevalence in the UK has continued to drop year-on-year, as more and more people have decided to make the switch to vaping as an effective and safer alternative to smoking.
The strict regulations that England has put in place have made us a leading authority on how e-cigarettes can be an extremely effective tool in tackling smoking, with the Government even announcing the ‘swap to stop’ scheme earlier this year which will see one million smokers provided with a vaping starter kit. We took a closer look at this scheme in our blog post ‘Government supports vaping with 'swap to stop' scheme’.
Not only can e-cigarettes be beneficial to the individual, but a new study from Brunel University London has identified that if 50% of current smokers made the switch from traditional cigarettes to an e-cigarette it could save the NHS an incredible £518 million per year.
Evapo defend vaping on ITV news
Unfortunately, the release of this data has seen some media outlets focusing not on the record low smoking rates but on the increased use of disposable vapes, particularly among young people.
Andrej Kuttruf, Evapo’s Founder and CEO, defended vaping in an interview with ITV News, emphasising the drop in smoking prevalence and the fact that disposable vapes do have a role to play in helping smokers make the switch to a less harmful alternative, by offering an approachable and easy-to-use way for adult smokers to transition to vaping.
Tackling youth vaping
Earlier this year the Government announced a call for evidence which focused on reducing the access that under age people have to vaping products, while still ensuring they are easily available to adult smokers as a smoking cessation tool.
We at Evapo took this opportunity to contribute evidence based on the nearly ten years of experience we have within the vaping industry, as tackling underage vaping is something we take extremely seriously.
This included initiatives like ‘Think 25’ which we implement in all of our 45+ retail stores, and means that any customers who look to be under the age of 25 are asked to show proof of age before they can make a purchase. We also verify the age of all new online customers when they order with us.
We also encouraged stricter fines to those shops who are found to be selling vaping products to minors, putting forth the recommendation for the introduction of a £10,000 on-the-spot fine which we believe would act as a strong deterrent to illegally selling vaping products to those who are under age.
Another suggestion we encouraged when submitting our evidence report is the introduction of a vaping licensing scheme. This would limit the sale of vaping products to specialist retails, supermarkets, and other responsible retailers who have gained the license, and would therefore limit the availability of illicit products and the sale of products to those under the legal age.
We outline all of our recommendations in the blog post 'Evapo respond to government call for evidence on youth vaping'.
Minimising our environmental impact
Another focus that media outlets have taken is the environmental impact of vaping, particularly that of disposable vapes.
Disposable vapes have become extremely popular over the last couple of years, and unfortunately the nature of these products has led to an increase in the amount of vaping waste that it ending up in landfill. However, this is not something that the vaping industry is taking lightly, and the unexpected popularity of disposables has led us to focus heavily on how we can combat their impact and behave in a more environmentally conscious way.
From the introduction of recyclable disposable vapes, to more clarity on how to responsibly dispose of vaping products, the vaping industry is working hard to minimise the impact of vaping and circulate information on best practices to our customers.
Here at Evapo we are always looking for ways that we can offset the environmental impact of vaping, such as funding plastic waste recovery to help recycle as much as possible and prevent it from entering our oceans. You can read all about this in our blog post ‘Evapo fund plastic waste recovery’. We have also committed to planting a tree for every four BrewBox disposable vapes sold, having planted 24,000 trees so far.
While tackling youth vaping and minimising the environmental impact of disposable vapes are both extremely important, we hope that the fantastic statistics revealed in this survey can be celebrated in their own right as a huge success and a great step towards the aim of a smokefree future in Great Britain.
At a glance
- Smoking rates have dropped to 12.9% in the UK, equating to 6.4 million people, in 2022, the lowest since records began
- Britain now has 4.5 million vapers with 8.7% of people currently using an e-cigarette either daily or occasionally
- 45.4% of current smokers reported that they intend to quit smoking, with 22% hoping to quit in the next 3 months
Sources
ons.gov.uk 05/09/2023
debra-study.info 11/07/2023
tobaccoreporter.com 01/09/2023
iamexpat.de 03/06/2022
gov.uk 29/09/2022
cochrane.org 17/11/2022
gov.uk 11/04/2023
brunel.ac.uk 07/08/2023
itv.com 05/09/2023
