New Data on Vaping Uncovers a Public Health Disconnect

Failure of current regulations means vapes overused by teens but underused to quit smoking

New data [1] from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) published today [Friday 11th July] shows that the estimated overall proportion of people who vape in Great Britain has stalled in the last year at 10% among adults and 7% in 11–17-year-olds. This indicates a worrying lack of progress in reducing use among children, as well as a potential underuse of vapes for smoking cessation, amid soaring risk misperceptions.

With the Tobacco and Vapes Bill [2] still awaiting committee stage in the House of Lords (second reading was on 23rd April), experts warn that the slow passage of legislation is harming both children and adult smokers, with young people at continued risk from vape marketing and adult smokers less likely to know that vaping is less harmful than smoking.

• Vaping prevalence among adults remains at 10.4%, unchanged since 2024, suggesting the growth in uptake has stalled.
• 7.6% of adults now vape daily, up from 4.5% in 2020.
• Among 11–17-year-olds, 20% have tried vaping (an estimated 1.1 million [3]), 7% currently vape (400k) with 3% saying they vape daily (160k). These figures are similar to 2024 data.
• Public confusion about the risks from vaping is growing: 56% of adults and 63% of young people now wrongly believe vaping is as harmful or more harmful than smoking. This is a significant rise from 2024 when 50% of adults and 58% of young people believed this.

ASH has been calling for further regulations on vaping since 2021 when youth use started to increase. The charity is concerned that the increase among young people has led to such high levels of public concern that now people wrongly think that vaping is at least as harmful as smoking, when in fact it is much less harmful. [4]

Despite compelling evidence that vaping can be an effective tool for quitting smoking, over a quarter (26%) of adults who currently smoke have never tried vaping. Misperceptions about the relative harms of vapes compared with cigarettes among smokers are highest among those who have never tried vaping. The proportion of current smokers who have never tried vapes who believe they are more than or equally as harmful as cigarettes has increased from 27% in 2019 to 63% in 2025.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill – which would grant Government powers to regulate vaping product appearance, marketing and sales – is essential to reduce youth appeal without deterring adult smokers from switching. But despite being introduced in November last year, the Bill has not yet entered committee stage in the House of Lords.

ASH is calling for:

• Immediate scheduling of the Committee Stage to unlock regulatory powers to reduce youth vaping.
• Swift implementation of new measures following Royal Assent, including:
  • Banning brightly coloured vape packaging and flavour descriptors.
  • Restricting vape advertising, point-of-sale displays, and marketing strategies targeting youth
• A strong communications strategy to:
  • Reinforce the greater harms of smoking over vaping.
  • Encourage smokers to switch.
  • Support initiatives like the Swap to Stop programme to maximise quit success.

Hazel Cheeseman, Chief Executive of ASH said:

“We are stuck in a dangerous limbo. Misconceptions about the relative harms of vaping are acting as a barrier to switching among people who smoke, meanwhile children remain exposed to products designed to appeal to them. It’s the worst of both worlds”

“Inaction by the last government, and now delays by this one, mean we’ve waited too long to act; we must urgently pass regulations to reclaim vaping as a quit aid, reduce youth access, and get the UK back on track to end smoking.”

Lord Faulkner of Worcester, Labour Peer and longstanding member of the APPG on Smoking and Health
said:

“I strongly support all efforts to reduce the public’s dependence on nicotine and a particular concern is the appeal of vaping to children. I urge the government to make rapid progress with passing the Tobacco and Vapes bill. This is a real opportunity to make a lasting change for the better and it should be a high priority for Parliament.”

Professor, Jamie Brown, Director of the UCL Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, said:

“Vaping rates among adults appear to have stalled, which is worrying given the rise in misperceptions about its relative harm. Many now wrongly believe vaping is as or more harmful as smoking, despite strong evidence to the contrary. Vapes are among the most effective tools for quitting smoking so this confusion may slow progress in reducing smoking rates. Clear public health messaging is urgently needed.”

The new data from ASH also finds that rates of smoking among young people have not fallen between 2024 and 2025 alongside stagnating rates of vaping. Commenting on the impact of current levels of youth vaping smoking, Professor Ann McNeill, Professor of Tobacco Addiction in the Department of Addictions, at King’s College London said:

“The persistently high levels of youth vaping we’re seeing is concerning – not just for young people themselves, but also because they’re driving wider public fears about vaping which risk overshadowing the vital role vaping plays in helping adults quit smoking.

“Additionally, there are deeply troubling signs that falls in youth smoking may have stalled. There are few things more likely to curb a child’s future life expectancy than taking up smoking and stalling progress should be a cause for serious alarm.

“The Tobacco and Vapes Bill presents a critical opportunity to introduce strong legislation to make smoking obsolete and curb the appeal and accessibility of vapes to youth, while preserving vaping as a harm reduction tool for smokers. This balance is urgently needed to protect both public health and future generations.”

ENDS

Notes to the Editor

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is a health charity working to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco use. For more information, visit ash.org.uk. ASH receives funding for its program of work from Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation.

For interviews or more information, contact press@ash.org.uk

References

[1] ASH is publishing two reports today

• ASH Smokefree Adult Survey 2025, n=13,314. Online GB survey conducted from 10th February to 10th March 2025 by YouGov on behalf of ASH. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all adults in Great Britain (aged 18+).
• ASH Smokefree Youth Survey 2025, n=3,044. Online GB survey conducted from 14th March to 24th April 2025 by YouGov on behalf of ASH. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all youth aged 11-18 in Great Britain. Figures quoted cover the 2,746 group of 11–17-year-olds who participated in the survey.

[2] Tobacco and Vapes Bill 2024: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3879

[3] National figures calculated using prevalence and ONS. Estimates of the population for the UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Mid-2023 dataset (total GB children aged 11-17)

[4] Royal College of Physicians. E-cigarettes and harm reduction: An evidence review. RCP, 2024.https://www.rcp.ac.uk/media/t5akldci/e-cigarettes-and-harm-reduction_executive-summary_0_0.pdf