The “Action on Smoking and Health” organisation – also known as “ASH” published the findings of its 2023 vaping survey.
The survey was conducted by ASH and YouGov in the spring of 2023 to get an oversight of vaping behaviour in the UK.
You can read the full PDF document here.
ASH and YouGov have been conducting these surveys since 2008 and in 2013 added youth questions for those aged 11-18.
Survey Methods
The survey was conducted online and there are two sub branches…
- Adults – there were 12,271 adult respondents during the period from 22/2/23 to 15/3/23.
- Youth – there were 2,656 respondents during the period from 21/3/23 to 18/4/23.
Key Findings
- The survey finds that there was no significant change in the last year of proportion of 11-17 year olds currently vaping or smoking.
- However experimental use of vapes in under 18s is up by 50% on last year’s results
- Disposable vapes are the main choice for under 18s currently vaping
- Corner shops were the main source of supply of disposable vapes
- Child awareness of in-store promotion of vaping has grown significantly since the 2022 survey.
Adult Vaping
The results show an increase in adult current vapers who were smokers (27%). But there are still 27% of smokers who have never tried vaping.
The next set of results are about vapers who also smoke. It shows there are few vapers who have never smoked (6.7%), 56% of vapers are ex-smokers and 37% still smoke as well as vape.
Youth Vaping
As mentioned above the Youth surveys were for 11-18 year olds but most of the data reported covers 11-17 year olds who are underage for buying vapes or tobacco.
The level of use of e-cigarettes is reported and experimentation (one or twice usage) has increased to 11.6% from 7.7% in 2022.
Other figures such as occasional use (less than once a week) and regular use have remained pretty stable since 2022.
The topic of why under 18s choose to vape are covered next. The main reason being “just to give it a try”.
Now we get to the topic of youth vaping and smoking.
The numbers show a slight increase in vaping (up to 7.6% in 2023 from 6.9% in 2022) and a great decrease in smoking (down to 3.6% in 2023 from 4.8% in 2022).
There is one result which does concern me. The fact that the amount of youth who are vaping that have never smoked has increased from 40% in 2022 up to 48% in 2023. Admittedly this is still better than youngsters smoking, but still is a scarily high percentage.
As we know there are many types of vaping product, but for this survey they were grouped into single use (disposable vape) or reusable (pod kits, pen kits, vape tanks etc.).
Sadly for the under 18’s disposable vapes are the prominent product at 69%. Reusable vapes have dropped to 12% from a peak of 35% in 2020.
To follow on from the types of vape – the participants were then asked what brands did they use. Top result was Elf Bar, followed by Lost Mary, Elux, Geekbar and the SKE Crystal.
The topic of vape promotion was next and the awareness of those aged 11-17 of vaping products has increased.
Those who see vapes promoted in shops rose from 37% in 2022 up to 53% in 2023. But it is worth noting that 20% of youngsters have not seen vapes being promoted.
Following on from that they were asked where vapes were promoted most online. TikTok seemed to be the most prolific with YouTube and Instagram following.
Generic Results
In proportion the amount of vapers both adult and youth who have never smoked is still small. Only 2.3% of youth vapers have never smoked and only 1.1% of adult vapers have never lit up.
Where do people buy their vapes? Well for adults the main location is the internet, but for youth vapers it is a local shop.
Harm perception for both youth and adults was tackled.
Sadly 54% of young people view vaping as equally or more harmful than smoking. I am not sure if this is good or bad? Yes we want young people to stay away from vaping, however would this perception drive them towards tobacco instead?
In adults 39% view vaping as harmful and only 34% view e-cigarettes as less harmful than smoking. The trends for adults show how the media has manipulated the harm reduction perception of vaping in a negative way.
Experimental child vaping up significantly since 2022 but not current vaping – ASH https://t.co/QGQTQ73QwU
— NCSCT (@NCSCT) May 18, 2023
🆕ASH YouGov 2023 survey finds under-18s trying vaping once or twice up by 50% from last year.https://t.co/t9KKGFCNTn pic.twitter.com/g383xPjIuF
— ASH (@AshOrgUK) May 18, 2023
Harm perceptions are very inaccurate. Over half of 11-17 year olds think vaping as or more harmful than smoking. pic.twitter.com/K6r8xR9IVU
— ASH (@AshOrgUK) May 18, 2023
“@AshOrgUK said, however, that fears vaping is leading to a new generation addicted to nicotine are not justified by the evidence to date.” https://t.co/xHUtpRsOPO
— NNAlliance (@NNAlliance) May 18, 2023
What we found:
1. Youth experimentation with vapes still growing, up 50% between 2022 and 2023
2. Awareness of promotion of vapes among 11-17 year olds up in shops and online
3. Access to vapes in stores still easy for under 18s, most common place of purchase: corner shops
— Hazel Cheeseman (@HazelCheeseman) May 18, 2023
5. Harm perceptions are the most inaccurate they have been in all our surveys. Now more than half of 11-17 year olds think vaping as bad or worse than smoking. THEY AREN’T. Concerns kids who vape risk trying smoking if they think it’s the same.
— Hazel Cheeseman (@HazelCheeseman) May 18, 2023
The good news:
6. Currently vaping among 11-17 year olds has not grown between 2022 and 2023 (it rose steeply between 2021 and 2022)
7. Youth smoking has not increased and lowest it’s been in our surveys
— Hazel Cheeseman (@HazelCheeseman) May 18, 2023
