UK Vaping Overtakes Smoking as Over a Million Never-Smokers Now Use E-Cigarettes

More than one million adults in the UK who have never smoked a cigarette are now using vapes, according to new figures for 2025 that highlight the rapid shift in nicotine habits across the country.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, released on Tuesday, shows that around 1.1 million people who describe themselves as never-smokers vape daily or occasionally. That marks a rise from approximately 940,000 in 2024. The finding underscores how vaping has moved well beyond its original role as a quit-smoking aid and into the mainstream.

For the second year running, vaping has outpaced traditional smoking among people aged 16 and over. The ONS estimates that 5.4 million people currently vape or use e-cigarettes, compared with 4.9 million who still smoke tobacco. Smoking rates have continued their long decline, falling to roughly one in ten adults, or 10.1%.

Drilling into the age breakdown, a notable demographic shift has emerged. People aged 25 to 35 are now the heaviest vapers, overtaking the 16-to-24-year-old group that had previously led the trend. Among the 25-34 bracket, 16.4% use e-cigarettes daily or occasionally.

David Mais, from the ONS, said the changing age profile of vapers may reflect existing users getting older, growing popularity among this age group, or a combination of both. The observation suggests that vaping is no longer confined to younger adults experimenting with new products but has taken root among people in their late twenties and early thirties, many of whom may be former smokers or dual users.

The ONS also tracks the share of people who have never tried an e-cigarette, and that figure continues to shrink. In 2025, 83.0% of respondents said they had never used a vape, down slightly from 83.4% a year earlier. The gradual erosion of never-use rates indicates that vaping is steadily reaching a wider cross-section of the population.

Among current smokers, the desire to quit remains strong. Half of those who reported smoking in 2025 said they intended to give up, and harm reduction experts point to vaping as one of the most effective tools for achieving that goal. The NHS maintains that vaping is less harmful than smoking, though it cautions that the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes are not yet fully understood.

Public health guidance is clear that non-smokers and anyone aged under 18 should never vape. The latest figures show that a significant and growing number of adults who have never smoked are ignoring that advice, raising questions about how effectively the message is reaching the public.

The popularity of cigarette smoking has fallen sharply over recent decades, driven by mounting evidence of tobacco's devastating health consequences and successive government interventions. Smoking remains the biggest cause of preventable death in the UK, linked to a wide range of cancers, respiratory diseases and cardiovascular conditions.

Hazel Cheeseman, from the charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), described the latest statistics as encouraging progress in cutting smoking rates. She said smoking had fallen enormously in recent decades but remained the biggest driver of preventable death in the UK, adding that now is the time to finish the job.

The government is preparing to take a historic step in that direction. New legislation, set to take effect in the new year, will permanently ban the legal sale of tobacco to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009. The measure is designed to create a so-called "smoke-free generation," in which people reaching adulthood will never be able to legally purchase cigarettes.

The policy mirrors approaches debated in several other countries and represents one of the most ambitious tobacco control strategies in the world. Its backers argue that cutting off the supply of tobacco to young people will prevent them from ever taking up the habit, while critics question how enforceable such a ban will prove in practice.

Other patterns in the data echo previous years. Men were more likely than women to smoke in 2025. The highest proportion of current smokers was found among people aged 45 to 54, at 12.4%. Young adults aged 18 to 24 recorded the largest decline in smoking of any age group, continuing a trend of falling tobacco use among the youngest legal buyers.

Separately, 7.2% of people reported having used an e-cigarette, up from 6.6% in 2024, a further sign of the device's growing presence. The figures come amid ongoing debate about how tightly vaping products should be regulated, particularly disposable vapes, which have become a focus of concern over youth uptake and environmental waste.

Taken together, the ONS findings paint a picture of a country in the middle of a profound nicotine transition. Cigarettes are in retreat, vaping is ascendant, and more than a million people who never smoked are now inhaling nicotine through a device that did not exist as a mass-market product a generation ago. How that shift plays out over the coming decade will shape public health policy for years to come.