The study titled Patterns, trends and determinants of e-cigarette use in 28 European Union Member States 2014-2017, examined changes in the selected European countries between 2014 and 2017. The study authors examined data from the 2014 (n = 27,801) and 2017 (n = 27,901) adult Special Eurobarometer for Tobacco Survey, which provided nationally representative surveys of 28 EU member states.
In 2014, 1.5% of the EU population were regular e-cig users, which had risen to 1.8% by 2017. In 2017 63 million Europeans aged 15 or older had ever used e-cigarettes (95% CI, 59.9 million-66.2 million), and 7.6 million (95% CI, 6.5 million-8.9 million) were regular e-cigarette users.
Highest vaping rates found in the UK, lowest in Bulgaria
Among those who had ever used e-cigarettes, participants aged between 15 and 24 ,were less likely to be regular users than those aged ≥55 years (16.9% vs. 38.1%). On the other hand 21.8% of never smokers were regular users as compared with current and former smokers which equated to 27.0% and 41.3% respectively.
“The proportion of adults who were regular e-cigarette users in 2017 ranged from 4.7% in the UK to 0.2% in Bulgaria. There have been slight rises in the proportion of people regularly using e-cigarettes in the EU, and this varies considerably between member states, indicating the role of the regional environment in supporting or deterring e-cigarette use,” read the study abstract.
