How Many People Vape Around the World?
How Many People Vape Around the World?
By Steven Bustrin, H2 Digital.
In an ever growing industry, vaping has changed the world to how consumers take in nicotine along with helping millions quit smoking. I got involved with the vape industry about 5 years ago and was curious just to how many people in the industry today. So I did some research and I wanted to throw out some interesting numbers to you guys that you will think is pretty eye-opening. Mind you before I dive into some of the statistics they might have fluctuated even more so keep in mind that what is said are averages not specifics, okay? Now let’s dive in…
How many vapers or in North America?
North America is comprised of three countries: Canada, United States and Mexico. Each of their respective markets have very different regulations and laws which factor into overall usage but nonetheless United States is world’s largest leading vape market consisting of over 9 million users spending over $3.7 billion per year on related products. Canada’s vaping market consists of users between 300 thousand and 900 thousand vape users. All regulations have been taken place in provincial or municipal levels which mean that the regulations are different in various provinces. The numbers of users fluctuate because there are at least 300 thousand users daily but just under a million consumers who have tried vaping at least once. It is also unknown how many vape users there are in Mexico but what is more confusing is the regulations. I couldn’t find very many articles on the Mexico market but we can definitely expect to see this country grow and blow up sooner rather than later. Since United States has so many users, North America is responsible for over 40% of the vaping market.
How many vapers in Europe?
The fastest growing market since 2012, United Kingdom alone consists of 2.8 million vape users and counting. The market blew up back in 2012 only having 700 thousand vape users and has increased dramatically ever since. Russia is also in this category with having 1.5 million users and counting. And Imagine this, Russia opened their first store in 2014!
How many vapers in Asia?
Even though there are about 4.15 billion people in Asia, there are only about 1 million users mainly residing in Malaysia. Currently Malaysia is responsible for over $117 million per year on products and it is a small but consistent market that is growing every year. Although there is a small vaping community in Japan, it’s annual growth of new users is one of the highest in the world. In 2016, vapor-producing devices and products generated over $4.6 million. Even though it is a smaller market, its revenue generated over 5 times the amount to its previous year in 2015. There are a lot of other smaller markets and since it is a market that is growing so fast the final statistics ultimately became inconclusive. If I was to start somewhere with a company in the vaping world it wouldn’t be a hard decision to start in Asia. That’s just my opinion but take it with a grain of salt.
How many people vape in the rest of the world?
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 12.2% of Australia’s population are daily smokers. Nearly one third of smokers had tried e-cigarettes in their lifetime, but only 4.4% of them vape on a regular basis. With a population of 24.1 million, this would equate to approximately 2.94 million smokers and around 129,000 daily vapers.
Africa is relatively unknown, but South Africa has gained some momentum with an estimated 200,000 vape users. Argentina banned the sale and import of vaping since 2011. Brazil banned the manufacture and sale of vaping products in 2014. Uruguay has banned the sale of vaping devices completely.
So, what is the point?
The point is there are A LOT OF VAPERS! Seriously, it seems like every single day I check the analytics and statistics there are more and more people vaping. The interesting thing I’ve noticed is there are a lot of people quitting smoking and turning to vaping. Another takeaway I learned is there are a lot of consumers that have never smoked before that are starting to vape, myself included. The industry consists of 60% Millennial and a generation that dominates all industries. Look, vape isn’t going away anytime soon, that’s a fact. In some ways I feel like we are recycling the tobacco industry and from history’s standpoint we are still dealing with the tobacco industry as it is still growing as well. Now before I go mind you that these statistics are from research that I’ve done, a lot of these numbers have changed after the time that this article has been published. The vape industry is growing that quickly.
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