An estimated 4.9 million UK adults smoked cigarettes in 2025 — the lowest proportion since comparable records began in 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Just 9.8 per cent of UK adults aged 18 and over were current cigarette smokers in 2025, the figures show. That’s down from 10.6 per cent in 2024, when an estimated 5.3 million adults smoked — meaning around 400,000 fewer people were lighting up year-on-year.
The ONS published the data on 6 October 2026, drawing on its Annual Population Survey. The figures cover current cigarette smokers only — they don’t capture all nicotine use, so vaping and other tobacco products fall outside this count.
The numbers are survey estimates rather than a census count, and the ONS applied weighting adjustments to account for changes in how the APS collected data — switching to telephone-only interviewing in March 2020 before returning to mixed-mode in October 2023. Those adjustments factor in non-response, age, sex, geography and socio-economic characteristics to preserve comparability across the series.
A separate England-only measure from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities put the adult smoking rate at 9.5 per cent in 2025. That figure should not be substituted for the UK-wide ONS estimate, as the two use different methodologies and populations.
The long-term direction is clear. The APS series runs from 2011, and 2025 marks its lowest recorded point. But smoking remains a leading cause of preventable illness in the UK, and public health bodies have consistently pointed to persistent inequalities in who smokes.
Source: @ONS
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