How many vapers are there in the world?

Are there more and more vapers in the world?

A study co-conducted by the University of Warsaw and the UK’s Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction aimed to estimate the number of vapers worldwide in 2021, as well as their geographical distribution. Nicotine is consumed by one in five adults worldwide, mainly through smoking tobacco cigarettes.

Modern electronic cigarettes came onto the market around 2007, and have considerable potential to improve people’s health by replacing smoking. The aim of this study was therefore to map e-cigarette use, but this is difficult due to the lack of data sources for many countries. The assumed similarity method was used for countries with missing data. Average vaping prevalence was calculated for each World Health Organization region, taking into account the World Bank’s income classification for each country. The estimate was refined to take account of changes in the size of the market and the actual year of the surveys.

It shows that the number of vapers has been estimated at 82 million worldwide in 2021: 9.2 million in the Middle East, 5.6 million in Africa, 20.1 million in Europe, 16.8 million in North and South America, 30 million in the Western Pacific and Caribbean, 16.0 million in the Western Pacific region and 14.3 million in Southeast Asia.

T. Jerzynski & coll. VOL. 24 NO. 2 2023, pp. 91-103, Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2752-6739, Drugs, Habit and Social Policy. DOI 10.1108/DHS-07-2022-0028