The clearest single figure comes from the ONS, published on 6 October 2026 as part of its annual smoking habits bulletin. In Great Britain, 9.9% of adults aged 16 and over used an e-cigarette daily or occasionally in 2025, compared with 8.7% who currently smoked cigarettes, both measured by the same Opinions and Lifestyle Survey. That works out to roughly 5.4 million vapers against about 4.3 million smokers in Great Britain. Vaping first overtook smoking in this particular survey in 2024, so 2025 marks the second year running that it has stayed ahead.

The picture from ASH's own Smokefree GB Adult Survey 2026 is slightly different, and it is worth stating honestly rather than smoothing over. ASH puts current vaping at 10.3% of GB adults, about 5.5 million people, against smoking at 11%, so on ASH's measure smoking still edges ahead, if only just. The two surveys ask different questions of different samples at different points in the year, and the ONS itself says its UK wide smoking figure and its Great Britain figures should not be compared directly either. What both agree on is the direction: vaping and smoking have become close enough in Great Britain that which one is technically ahead depends on which survey you read, and that simply was not true five years ago.

ASH's data lets us look behind the headline number. Among the 5.5 million adults who currently vape in Great Britain, 60% (about 3.3 million) are former smokers, 32% (1.7 million) still smoke as well, and 8% (roughly 400,000) say they never smoked at all. Daily vaping has climbed steadily, from 4.5% of adults in 2020 to 7.8% in 2026, while daily smoking has fallen from 9.7% to 6.6% over the same period.

Vaping is not spread evenly across age groups. ASH recorded current vaping at 11% among 18 to 24 year olds, rising to 15% among 25 to 34 year olds, 14% among 35 to 44 year olds, 13% among 45 to 54 year olds, and dropping to 6% among adults 55 and over. Trying vaping at least once has grown fastest among the youngest adults, up from 32% to 39% between 2025 and 2026 among 18 to 24 year olds, even though how many of them currently vape has barely moved since 2021.

Among current vapers, the device people actually use has changed sharply since the UK's single use vape ban took effect on 1 June 2025. Disposable vapes made up 31% of the devices vapers used in 2023, at the height of their popularity, and ASH's 2026 data puts that share at just 8%. Pod systems, the small refillable devices with replaceable or prefilled pods, have taken up most of that gap, rising to 42% of use.

That shift matches what EcoSmok sees across its own pod kit range, where compact devices and nic salt and e-liquid refills have taken over from the single use devices that used to dominate. For anyone switching away from smoking for the first time, or simply replacing a banned disposable, a small pod kit remains the most common starting point.

Ask the public how risky vaping is compared with smoking, and the answer most adults give does not match the official evidence. ASH found that 54% of UK adults think vaping is as harmful as smoking or more harmful, and only 29% correctly say it is less harmful. That misperception has grown sharply since the early 2020s, when roughly one in four adults held it.

The official UK evidence points the other way. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities' independent 2022 evidence review, carried out by researchers at King's College London, found conclusive evidence that vaping exposes users to far lower levels of many of the carcinogens and toxicants found in cigarette smoke, and judged that the findings support encouraging people who smoke to switch to vaping completely, either to stop or as a lower risk alternative.

That is not the same as saying vaping is risk free. The same review was clear that vaping aerosol is not harmless for people who have never smoked, that nicotine dependence remains a real possibility, and that most of the evidence covers use of up to twelve months, so firm conclusions about decades of use are not yet possible. The honest summary, consistent with ASH's own figures, is that vaping is considerably less harmful than continuing to smoke for adults who already smoke, while starting vaping with no smoking history at all is a different decision with its own risks.