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.
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Source - Opinions and Lifestyle Survey from the Office for National Statistics
Download Figure 8 data:
Source - Opinions and Lifestyle Survey from the Office for National Statistics
Download Figure 9 data:
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
E-cigarette use
Data for e-cigarette use come from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN), which covers adults aged 16 years and over in Great Britain.
An estimated 5.9% of people aged 16 years and over in Great Britain reported using an e-cigarette daily in 2023, up from 5.2% in 2022.
A further 3.9% reported using an e-cigarette occasionally, up from 3.5% in 2022 (Figure 8).
This equates to around 5.1 million e-cigarette users in Great Britain.
Percentage of daily and occasional e-cigarette users, Great Britain, 2022 and 2023
Figure 8: The percentage of current daily e-cigarette users increased in 2023, compared with 2022
Excel spreadsheet (XLSX format, 17KB)
Current and ex-smokers were more likely to report using an e-cigarette in 2023 (31.6% and 18.7%, respectively).
Around 2.8% of those who had never smoked reported using an e-cigarette daily or occasionally.
The number of people who had never smoked but reported using an e-cigarette daily doubled to 1.2% (around 400,000 people) between 2022 and 2023.
When looking at the whole population, whether they smoked cigarettes or not, people more likely to use an e-cigarette were:
- men (11.0%), compared with women (8.5%)
- people aged 16 to 24 years (15.8%) (Figure 9)
Percentage of daily or occasional e-cigarette users by age, Great Britain, 2022 and 2023
Figure 9: Daily or occasional e-cigarette use was highest in people aged 16 to 24 years in 2023
Excel spreadsheet (XLSX format, 17KB)
E-cigarette use has continued to increase most substantially among younger people aged 25 to 34 years.
The percentage of men aged 25 to 34 years who were daily e-cigarette users rose to 10.2% in 2023, from 7.4% in 2022. However, this increase was not statistically significant.
Of women aged 16 to 24 years, 8.7% were daily e-cigarette users in 2023. This is the highest usage recorded in this group since data collection began in 2014. While the increase between 2022 and 2023 was not statistically significant, it follows a large increase between 2021 and 2022 (4.8 percentage points).