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
Local authority smoking prevalence
Current smoker estimates for each local authority (Figure 2) can vary a lot from year to year
because of small sample sizes. So, we have used a five-year average to give a clearer picture of
how smoking prevalence varies between local authority areas, rather than focusing on one year’s figures.
You can still find annual smoking estimates by local authority in our accompanying Smoking habits in the UK and its constituent countries dataset.
Local authorities with the highest average percentage of current smokers are:
Fenland with 22.1%
Blackpool with 21.3%
Local authorities with the lowest average percentage of current smokers are:
Woking with 5.3%
St Albans with 5.7%%
!Important Information
Smoking prevalence estimates by local authority area are based on smaller sample sizes,
and therefore fluctuate more each year than national-level estimates. So, we have used a
five-year average to compare smoking prevalence between local authority areas.
Percentage who were current smokers, all people aged 18 years and over by local authority, UK 2019 to 2023
Figure 2: The average percentage of current smokers by local authority of the UK
Source - Annual Population Survey from the Office for National StatisticsDownload Figure 2 data:
