How UK’s ditched cigs and turned to vaping: Record 5.4million now use e-cigs OVERTAKING smoking for the first time ever – so how many adults still light up in YOUR area?

A record 5.4 million adults in the UK now vape, overtaking cigarette smokers for the first time, new figures suggest.

Just 9.1 per cent adults in Britain smoked in 2024, down on last year and a fraction of the nearly 50 per cent during the 1970s, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 

Its data has been crunched into an interactive map, which allows readers to see exactly how many people living in their area are still hooked on cigarettes.

Meanwhile, one in ten over-16s now regularly vape.

This equates to around 5.4 million vapers and 4.9 million smokers, the ONS figures suggest.

David Mais, from the ONS, said: ‘Interestingly, our 2024 data show that, for the first time, the number of users of e-cigarettes or vapes has overtaken the number of smokers.

‘Among adults aged 16 (and over) in Great Britain, 10 per cent said they were e-cigarette users, compared with 9.1 per cent that were cigarette smokers.

‘This is in line with the long-term trend of fewer people smoking cigarettes over the past decade.’

According to the figures, e-cigarette use remained highest among people aged 16 to 24 years, with 13 per cent using e-cigarettes either daily or occasionally. 

This is despite sales of vapes to under-18s being banned, with anyone caught flogging them to children threatened with fines and prosecution by Trading Standards. 

Campaigners have also long called for much tougher regulations on vapes — including an immediate ban on marketing to children, which are most popular among teens. 

They have blamed predatory manufacturers for the ever-growing crisis, claiming they are intentionally luring kids in with colourful packaging, compared to highlighter pens, and child-friendly flavours such as bubblegum and cotton candy. 

Women appeared to be driving the trend, with vaping rates increasing almost a fifth in a year, while it has decreased among men.  

One in 10 women reported using e-cigarettes daily or occasionally in 2024, up from 8.5 per cent in 2023.

Meanwhile the proportion of men who use vapes on a daily or occasional basis dropped from 11 per cent in 2023 to 10.1 per cent in 2024. 

An estimated 6.7 per cent of people aged 16 and over in Britain also reported using an e-cigarette ‘daily’ in 2024, up from 5.9 per cent in 2023, the ONS data showed.

Meanwhile, around 2.7 per cent of those who had never smoked reported using an e-cigarette daily or occasionally.  

Advertised as a healthier alternative to smoking, e-cigs allow people to inhale nicotine in a vapour — produced by heating a liquid, which typically contains propylene glycol, glycerine, flavourings, and other chemicals.

Unlike traditional cigs, they do not contain tobacco, nor do they produce tar or carbon — which are two of the most dangerous elements.

Experts have long said the introduction of modern anti-smoking laws, such as selling cigarettes in plain packaging, are behind the fall in smokers. 

Other tough measures deployed in the past two decades include slapping graphic warning labels depicting their damaging health effects on all tobacco and banning smoking in restaurants, pubs and nightclubs.

The smoking rate has been in freefall for decades, with health officials declaring the end of smoking to finally be ‘in sight’.

Around 45 per cent of people smoked in the 1970s.

The figure had fallen to 20 per in 2011 before hitting 14 per cent in 2020.

England is aiming to go completely smoke-free by 2030, with No10 having already introduced a raft of policies to curb rates.

Government advisers have also even previously called for smoking to be banned on pavements outside pubs and restaurants.