Wales Teens Vape Less, Smoke More Cigarettes

E-cigarette use among young people has fallen for the first time in Wales, according to research by Cardiff University.

But the decline in 11 to 16-year-olds smoking has stalled, the study found.

The 2019 Student Health and Wellbeing Survey asked more than 100,000 pupils from 198 secondary schools across Wales about their smoking habits. The findings show 22 percent of young people had tried an e-cigarette, down from 25 percent in 2017, according to the BBC.

Those vaping weekly or more often had also declined from 3.3 percent to 2.5 percent over the same period. Experimenting with vaping is still more popular than trying tobacco (11 percent), according to the data.

But the long-term decline in those regularly smoking had stalled, with 4 percent of those surveyed smoking at least weekly in 2019, the same level as in 2013. Young people from poorer backgrounds were still more likely to start smoking than those from richer families, according to the findings.