Colchester named vaping capital of UK

Colchester has been named as the vaping capital of the UK, with a higher percentage of vape users than anywhere else.

Vape retailer MIST has analysed their 2021 sales data comparative to area population to rank the places where vaping is most popular.

The Essex town has blown other vaping hot spots out of the water and now has the highest percentage of vapers in the UK. The North of England wasn’t far behind though, with Stockport coming a close second for the number of people vaping regularly.

Colchester seems to have caught the vaping bug, jumping from position 16 in 2020 to topping the charts in 2021.

Norwich ranked in third but was the city with the highest actual number of vape users, followed by Newport.

Commenting on the data, MIST’s Founder and CEO, Fred Cassman, said: "It's fascinating to see the vaping hot spots mapped across the UK. I started working in the vaping industry over 15 years ago when e-cigarettes weren't a household name, so to see the growth of vaping across the country is really incredible."

"We tend to find that vaping hot spots are most commonly areas that previously had a lot of smokers, because most vape users start as a way of giving up cigarettes. We particularly find there to be a spike in new vape users in January after Brits have made their New Year's resolutions."