Vaping and smoking among Scottish adolescents – results from the ASH Smokefree GB Youth survey 2026

Methodology

The ASH Smokefree GB Youth Survey is an annual survey of a representative sample (by age, gender and region) of adolescents in Great Britain (N=2,926 in 2026). It is conducted online by YouGov on behalf of ASH^[1] and has been running since 2013. The survey is funded by ASH, which receives core funding from the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK.

Until 2023, the Scottish sample consisted of approximately 200 young people. From 2024 onwards, the Scottish Government commissioned a booster sample to enable Scotland-only analysis. This supports the monitoring and reporting of progress against the objectives outlined in the Tobacco and Vaping Framework.

In 2026, the Scottish sample comprised 767 adolescents aged 11-17. Fieldwork was conducted between 3 April and 6 May 2026.

All analyses are based on data weighted to be representative of the 11–17-year-old population in Scotland by age and gender. Unweighted sample sizes for all weighted estimates are provided in tables and figures.

The sample is not fully representative by social grade or deprivation, with lower social grades and more deprived groups under-represented.^[2] This should be considered when interpreting the results.

Differences highlighted in the report are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level (p<0.05), unless otherwise stated or indicated in the tables. A statistically significant result means that the difference observed is unlikely to have occurred by chance alone; however, statistical significance does not necessarily imply substantive importance.

Overall and subgroup sample sizes have been taken into account when interpreting differences between groups and changes compared to 2024 and 2025 results, as these influence the level of confidence in the findings.

To minimise the risk of misinterpretation, percentages are not reported for subgroups with fewer than 50 respondents. Instead, unweighted counts are presented and the small base is noted.

Percentages may not always total 100% due to rounding or the use of multiple-response questions.

For accessibility, some charts omit response options with very low percentages where they do not add meaningful insights.

This report makes reference to ‘current use’ to describe the sum of regular (once a week or more) and occasional use, and to ‘ever use’ to describe the sum of both current use and any use in the past. Accordingly, where relevant, we refer to ‘current smokers/vapers/users’ and ‘ever smokers/vapers/users’ using these definitions.