Walk down any UK high street over the past few years and you could see the shift: more shelf space for refillables, pods at the till, and, until very recently, rows of disposables. Behind that change is a market that cracked the £1.4bn mark and kept going, with grocery/convenience data putting retail sales around £1.7bn in 2023. That’s a big jump from earlier estimates and shows how quickly vaping moved from niche to mainstream.
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The size of the habit
How many people are actually vaping? ASH’s latest figures suggest 10% of Great Britain’s adults, about 5.5 million people, now vape, with just over half of vapers being ex-smokers and around two in five still smoking. That mix matters for where demand goes next, because quit attempts, relapses, and dual use all push different products.
On the way to today’s totals, the market didn’t grow in a straight line. Government analysis shows that reusable devices were still slightly ahead of disposables in 2023 (54% vs 43% among current vapers), but the rise of disposables was the story of 2021–2023, especially among younger adults.
Disposables were the accelerant, then policy hit
Two things can be true at once: disposables pulled a lot of new demand into the category, and they also triggered the policy backlash that’s reshaping it now. After months of consultation, the UK banned the sale of single-use (disposable) vapes from 1 June 2025. From that date, non-reusable vapes have been off-limits.
What happened next? Survey data across 2024–2025 show the share of vapers who mainly used disposables fell sharply, from about 44% in January 2024 to 29% by January 2025. Adult prevalence didn’t spike post-announcement; instead, it stabilised while people shifted devices. Early checks found near-identical rechargeable versions on shelves, and some ongoing illicit disposable sales, suggesting the market is adjusting in fits and starts.
Who’s buying, and why
Beyond price and flavour, a big driver is quitting. In England, e-cigarettes were used in 41% of quit attempts by 2024, up from 27% a decade earlier. That’s one reason ex-smokers make up such a large slice of vapers. The research also finds more buying from supermarkets and convenience stores than in the early years, which helps explain the speed of category growth: the products moved closer to where everyday shopping happens.
Then the environmental bill came due
If disposables were the accelerant, waste was the spark for regulation. UK recycling and safety groups estimate millions of vapes are thrown away or improperly recycled each week, lithium cells included, contributing to fires in waste facilities and a lot of hard-to-recover materials. That combination of youth uptake and bin-bound batteries gave policymakers their headline problem.
So where does £1.4bn fit in?
Think of £1.4bn as the point the UK market clearly crossed several years into vaping’s mainstream phase; analysts were quoting that figure as the category took off. Since then, convenience/grocery tills have recorded about £1.7bn in 2023, showing how retail sales momentum ran ahead of policy. Meanwhile, the government’s own impact work cited roughly £1.325bn in vape-sector turnover back in 2021, which lines up with the climb through those milestones.
What changes for shoppers now?
With disposables gone, the growth focus swings to refillables, prefilled pods, and high-capacity rechargeable kits. Expect more attention on compliance (nicotine limits, packaging), better access to proper recycling drop-offs for batteries and devices, and more emphasis on long-life hardware to cut waste. Early 2025 data already hinted that people were moving away from disposables and back toward reusable formats.
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The short version
The UK vaping market blew past £1.4bn on its way to higher retail totals, reflecting strong consumer demand and wider availability.
- 10% of GB adults (≈5.5m) vape; more than half are ex-smokers, and quitting remains a major driver.
- Disposables supercharged growth, then the UK banned them from 1 June 2025; the share of disposable users has fallen since the policy was signalled.
- Waste and youth uptake were key reasons for the ban; millions of devices were being trashed weekly.
- The UK market didn’t just “reach” £1.4bn, it passed it and kept climbing. The next phase is about refills and rechargeables meeting the same day-to-day needs, minus the throwaway baggage.