Smokers are down to 10 cigarettes a day

♦ The average smoker has cut down to around 10 a day, in the wake of the ban on smoking indoors and the rise in vaping, new research shows.

The study by Cancer Research UK reveals that while the number of smokers has fallen substantially in recent years, the fall in total cigarettes smoked is significantly higher.

While the number of people smoking has fallen by 15 per cent since 2011, the total number of cigarettes smoked has dropped by 24 per cent.

Around 14.7 per cent of British adults smoke, down from 20.2 per cent in 2011, official figures show. And the research shows that the average smoker now has 10.6 cigarettes a day – down from 12.4 a day in 2011. It comes in the wake of the ban in smoking indoors in 2007.

Meanwhile, the number of adults vaping has risen by 70 per cent in just two years, with one in four children aged between 11 and 15 also having tried e-cigarettes.

In total, 6.3 per cent of adults use e-cigarettes, the figures for 2016 show – up from 3.7 per cent in 2014. And 25 per cent of children aged between 11 and 15 have tried vaping – a rise from 22 per cent in two years.

Public Health England says vaping is now the most popular and effective way for smokers to quit.

The study shows that almost one and a half billion fewer cigarettes have been smoked each year since 2011.

The team at University College London examined cigarette sales data as well as the monthly self-reported cigarette use from more than 135,000 people.

The study was published in the journal JAMA Network Open.