Health Survey England Additional Analyses, Ethnicity and Health, 2011-2019 Experimental statistics

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and other vaping devices use a range of methods that allow their users to inhale nicotine as a vapour rather than via tobacco smoke. Their use in Britain has increased steeply in recent years¹.

In 2019, among adults, e-cigarettes were most likely to be used by current or ex-smokers. In 2019, half of users said that their main reason was as an aid to stop smoking.^{2 3}

The current questions about e-cigarette use were asked between 2016 and 2019. Participants were asked whether they had ‘ever used an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette), or any other vaping device?’ Interviewers offered further clarification if necessary. For the sake of brevity this report uses the term e-cigarette to refer to all vaping devices.

Between 2016 and 2019, the proportions of adults who had ever used e-cigarettes varied between 21% and 24% of men and 16% and 18% of women, with a slight upward trend.⁴

^{4. Bankiewicz U and Robinson C (2020), op cit.} 

The proportions of men who had ever tried e-cigarettes varied between 11% and 27% of men and between 3% and 27% of women.

Once age was taken into account, no group among men stood out as having particularly high proportions who had ever tried e-cigarettes; among women those from white and Mixed or multiple backgrounds were most likely to have tried them. The proportions who had tried e-cigarettes were lowest among black African and Indian men and women from all Asian and black African backgrounds.⁵