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Statistical article

Adult smoking habits in the UK: 2023

Cigarette smoking habits among adults in the UK, including how many people smoke, differences between population groups, changes over time and use of e-cigarettes.

Release date : 1 October 2024
Next release : To be announced

Edition : Latest
View previous releases

Contact : Health.data@ons.gov.uk

Headline facts and figures

6.0 million

people smoked cigarettes (aged 18 and above) in the UK in 2023

25 to 34 age

highest propotion of current smokers (14%)

5.1 million

adults aged 16 years and over uses an e-cigatette daily or occasionally

Quitting smoking

In this section, we describe data from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN), which covers adults aged 16 years and over in Great Britain. In the OPN, a smoker is someone who reports smoking cigarettes, even only occasionally.

The percentage of adults in Great Britain aged 16 years and over who said they smoked cigarettes decreased from 11.2% in 2022 to 10.5% in 2023. This continues the downward trend seen since 1974.

This is in-line with the reduction in smoking prevalence seen in the Annual Population Survey (APS), which covers the UK and adults aged 18 years and over.

The percentage of people who indicated that they had previously smoked and had now quit increased to 70.9% in 2023, compared with 69.4% in 2022 (Figure 6).

The percentage of current smokers, and those who had previously smoked and have quit, all people aged 16 years and over, Great Britain, 1974 to 2023

Figure 6: The percentage of previous cigarette smokers who have quit continued to increase

Source - Annual Population Survey from the Office for National Statistics
Download Figure 6 data:

Excel spreadsheet (XLSX format, 19KB)

Footnotes

  1. The percentage of cigarette smokers who have quit is the percentage of all those who said that they have smoked cigarettes regularly who do not currently smoke.
  2. From March 2020, the survey moved to weekly data collection.
  3. From 25 August 2021, the survey moved to fortnightly data collection. 
  4. Data are unweighted before 2000. From 2000 onwards, they are weighted.  
  5. We collected data on cigarette use every two years before 2000.  


Of the people who currently smoked in 2023, 55.9% intended to quit smoking. Almost a quarter of current smokers (23.8%) intended to quit within the next three months.

Current smokers who intended to quit in the next three months were more likely to wait longer to have their first cigarette of the day (Figure 7).

Percentage of current smokers by time waited until first cigarette of the day and intention to quit, Great Britain, 2023

Figure 7: Current smokers who intended to quit in the next three months waited longer to have their first cigarette of the day

Source - Opinions and Lifestyle Survey from the Office for National Statistics
Download Figure 7 data:

Excel spreadsheet (XLSX format, 15KB)