Top 10 Vaping Stats for 2021 - World Statistics Day

11 October | Hannah Rubery

It’s World Statistics Day, so let’s delve into the top 10 statistics on vaping in the UK! We hear your enthusiasm but bear with us, we promise some of these will certainly be interesting. Statistics offer an intriguing insight into a topic, and with the countless web threads around the topic of vaping, it’s a great time to shed some light on a few key stats.

Top 10 Vaping Statistics you might not know...

1) “The age range for most UK vapers is 35-44”
It goes to show just how many people in the UK have made the jump from smoking to vaping with an age range like that. Oddly enough, in the US, the age range is 18-24 showing a clear disparity between vaping in the US and UK.

2) “77% of UK vapers used tanks rather than cartridge/pod devices”
A large majority of those who vape seem to show an investment in vaping by purchasing tank kits which recquire refilling and are rechargeable. Interestingly only 18% reported using pod systems which can be seen as halfway between disposable and rechargeable kits.

3) “Most common reason for vaping in the UK is to aid quitting smoking (36%)”
Other top reasons for people vaping were reported as enjoyment of flavours, ability to vape where smoking is not allowed and perception of less harm to others or to self.

4) “In the UK, 2021, nearly two-thirds of current vapers are ex-smokers (64.6%)”
And this figure is continuing to grow! Our goal at Pod Salt is to help smokers quit by making the change and clearly, it’s starting to show.

5) “In the UK, 2021, fewer than 1% of never-smokers are current vapers”
This amounts to around 4.9% of all vapers which suggests that still, the vast majority of people who vape either have smoked or currently smoke.

6) “Nearly a third of smokers believe vaping is more or equally harmful as smoking (32%)”
It’s a worrying amount of people and this figure has only risen in the last couple of years, no doubt due to the notoriety generated by the media. Check out our blog series on Debunking the Myths around Vaping.

7) “In 2021, nearly two-thirds (65%) of those currently vaping nicotine-containing products were using E-Liquids between 1-12mg/ml”
Of these also there were 27% who used 13-20mg/ml strength E-Liquids. This is certainly interesting as it could be suggested many vapers may be moving to using less nicotine. For context, a pack of 20 cigarettes is likely to give you between 22 to 36mg of nicotine.

8) “42% of vapers say they use the same strength they started on, while 47% decreased their strength.”
Only 9% increased their strength over time. With almost half of vapers decreasing their nicotine strength since starting vaping, this could suggest that vaping is a great way for not only quitting smoking but also quitting nicotine.

9) “In 2021, 95% of smokers and 93% of general population had heard of e-cigarettes”
Vaping has certainly come leaps and bounds in popularity over the last few years. Unfortunately, despite the amount of people who have heard of vaping and E-Cigarettes, it is quite likely that many of these are misinformed on the facts of vaping.

10) “Around 12,000 people Google “is vaping safe” each month in the UK”
That’s around 144,000 a year who are possibly contemplating vaping or looking at ways to quit smoking. That’s a whole lot of potential ex-smokers but depending on which site you visit from said search, especially if you enter an American website, the message may not be positive. There are a lot of discrepancies between vaping in the US and in the UK due to different regulations.

We hope that some of these facts may have been of interest, and perhaps might have even surprised you! For more interesting information, news and updates on all things vaping, keep posted with our blog.