Smoking in the UK has fallen to the lowest level on record as millions of adults take up vaping instead.
There are 6.6 million tobacco smokers, while 4 million use e-cigarettes, annual data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows.
Overall 13.3 per cent of the population smoked in 2021, down from 14 per cent in 2020 and 20.2 per cent in 2011. Rates have been declining since the Seventies, when nearly half of all adults smoked, and Britain now has one of the lowest smoking rates in Europe.
The ONS said the rise of vaping has played a “major role” in reducing the prevalence of smoking across the UK in recent years. In total 7.7 per cent of over-16s said they use an
