E-cigarette use in Canada

In 2020 among Canadians age 15 and older:

Many Canadians tried e-cigarettes, but few reported using them daily:

  • 16.6% (5.2 million) reported having ever tried an e-cigarette;
  • 4.7% (1.5 million) used one in the past 30 days; 
  • 2.3% (~721,000) reported daily use.

Prevalence of using e-cigarettes did not increase significantly between 2019 and 2020 for ever, past 30-day, or daily use.

Among past 30-day users of e-cigarettes, half (49.5%) used them every day.

E-cigarette use was most prevalent among younger age groups:

  • 43.3% of young adults aged 20 to 24 and 35.2% of youth aged 15 to 19 reported ever trying an e-cigarette.
  • 14.4% of youth aged 15 to 19 and 13.0% young adults aged 20 to 24 had used an e-cigarette in the past 30 days.
  • Approximately 5% of youth and young adults used an e-cigarette daily.

Ever use of e-cigarettes was more prevalent among males (19.5%) than females (13.7%), as were past 30-day use (5.7% vs. 3.6%, respectively) and daily use (2.9% vs. 1.7%, respectively).

Prevalence of e-cigarette use was much greater among smokers:

  • 47.5% of current smokers had ever used e-cigarettes, compared to 13.0% of non-smokers.
  • Past 30-day use was 16.5% among current smokers and 3.3% among non-smokers.
  • Daily e-cigarette use was 5.7% among current smokers and 1.9% among non-smokers.

Most past 30-day vapers (84.4%) reported using an e-liquid with nicotine in the past month, while just one in five (21.1%) reported using an e-liquid without nicotine.

Fruit and mint/menthol were the most popular usual flavours of e-cigarettes. Fruit was more popular among younger users, and tobacco flavour was more common among older users.

The majority of vapers got their e-cigarette devices and liquids from vape shops.

Among past 30-day users, more than one-third (37.6%) reported that their main reason for using e-cigarettes was to quit, cut down on, or avoid returning to smoking cigarettes.

More than one-third of past 30-day e-cigarette users (36.4%) reported that they had attempted to quit vaping in the past year.

Among youth in grades 7-9, in 2018-19:

  • 21.0% of Canadian students in grades 7-9 reported having ever tried an e-cigarette.
  • 11.1% had used an e-cigarette in the past 30 days.
  • Nearly 9 in 10 current smokers in grades 7-9 had used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, compared to approximately 7% of non-smokers.  
  • E-cigarette use varied by province: prevalence was lowest in Ontario, highest in Saskatchewan.