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.
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
Smoking in the UK and constituent countries
The Annual Population Survey (APS) gives headline indicators on the number of adults aged 18 years and over who smoke in the UK. In this survey, a smoker is defined as someone who smokes nowadays.
The estimated proportion of people who smoke in the UK has been falling since Annual Population Survey (APS) records began in 2011.
In 2023, 11.9% of adults aged 18 years or over (6.0 million people) were current smokers, according to APS data.
This is a decrease from 2022 (12.9% of the population), although not a statistically significant one.
An increase or decrease is statistically significant if it is likely that chance, or the variable nature of the samples, did not cause it. However, this decrease follows a long-term downward trend. The proportion of current smokers has fallen by 8.3 percentage points since 2011 (20.2% of the population).
The APS provides the official measure of smoking prevalence in England. It is used to monitor progress towards the UK government’s target of achieving a smokefree England by 2030, with smoking prevalence at 5% or lower.
Smoking in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
In the UK in 2023, as shown in Figure 1, the percentage of adult smokers in:
England was 11.6%
Wales was 12.6%
Scotland was 13.5%
Nortern Ireland was 13.3%
Current smokers as a percentage of all persons aged 18 years and over, 2011to 2023
Figure 1: Smoking prevalence continued to fall in all countries of the UK in 2023
Source - Annual Population Survey from the Office for National StatisticsDownload Figure 1 data:
We have weighted the figures to account for methodological changes in 2020, and to ensure users can compare estimates for 2020 onwards with estimates for previous years.
For Northern Ireland, the estimate over time has been more variable because of the smaller sample size.
