The United Kingdom's adult smoking rate fell below 10 percent for the first time in 2025, according to government figures released Oct. 6. The decline marks another milestone in the country's long retreat from cigarettes, while vaping remains more common than smoking in Great Britain.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that 9.8 percent of UK adults aged 18 and older smoked cigarettes in 2025, down from 10.6 percent in 2024. That represents approximately 4.9 million smokers. In 2011, when the current survey series began, 20.2 percent of adults smoked. Smoking prevalence has since fallen by more than half.
Vaping has followed a different trajectory. In Great Britain, approximately 5.4 million people aged 16 and older (9.9 percent of adults) reported using e-cigarettes daily or occasionally in 2025. That compares with 4.8 million smokers, or 8.7 percent, measured by the same survey. Vaping first overtook smoking in 2024, and the gap remained in 2025.
The figures come from two separate ONS surveys. The Annual Population Survey measures smoking among adults aged 18 and older throughout the UK. The Opinions and Lifestyle Survey tracks smoking and vaping among people aged 16 and older in Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland. Because their populations and methodologies differ, the headline UK smoking rate cannot be directly compared with the Great Britain vaping rate.
E-cigarette use was largely unchanged from 2024, when 10 percent of adults reported vaping. But the longer-term trend remains upward, from 6.4 percent in 2020. Vaping was most common among adults aged 25 to 34, with 16.4 percent reporting current use. Smoking, meanwhile, was highest among adults aged 45 to 54, at 12.4 percent.
The decline in smoking coincides with the growing popularity of vaping, although the population statistics cannot establish how much vaping contributed. The proportion of people who had ever smoked regularly and subsequently quit stood at 74.1 percent in 2025, compared with 54.6 percent in 2014. Other tobacco-control policies have also been implemented during that period, making it difficult to isolate the effect of e-cigarettes.
The new figures arrive as Britain begins taxing vaping products. The government's Vaping Products Duty, which took effect on Oct. 1, imposes a tax of £2.20 per 10 mL of vaping liquid, including nicotine-free products. The tax raises questions about whether higher vaping costs could discourage smokers from switching or encourage some existing vapers to return to cigarettes.
The latest statistics show how dramatically Britain's smoking population has shrunk. Whether the country can sustain that progress while making vaping more expensive will be an important test of its tobacco-control policies.
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