Canadian vapers are young, want to give up smoking

Canadian vapers share many demographic characteristics with their UK counterparts, a new survey suggests.

A large number of vapers are from the lower socioeconomic classes and educated only to secondary school level or lower, as in the UK.

However, Canada’s vapers tend to fall into the youngest 18+ age brackets, whereas UK vapers tend to be older and more settled.

The Canadian survey of 2154 adults by Forum Research found that most vapers (62%) listed quitting tobacco as a reason for taking up e-cigs. Other motivations included liking the flavours (16%) – particularly high among users who said they had never used conventional tobacco (52%) – as well as being able to vape inside (14%).

Of those looking to use e-cigs to quit tobacco, about half (48%) reported that they had been successful and about half of them (26% of the total) said that they no longer used an e-liquid containing nicotine.

“Many vapers are trying to quit smoking tobacco, and between a quarter and a third are successful at this. So, it appears e-cigarettes don’t represent the Trojan horse they are painted as, and may be a very useful smoking cessation aid,” said Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research.

The survey also found that Canadian vapers show a slight preference for disposable e-cigarettes (45% use disposables compared to 42% for refillables).

But this is not only a significant departure from territories such as the U.S. and EU, where refillables – in particular tank systems – are generally in the lead. It also differs radically from ECigIntelligence’s own research, which indicates an 80-20 split in favour of tank systems.

ECigIntelligence estimates that 2-5% of the Canadian smoking population uses e-cigarettes.

What This Means: Although some of the Forum Research numbers seem questionable in light of our study of the Canadian market, perhaps the most significant point to take away is Bozinoff’s belief that e-cigs are only going to continue to grow at a rapid pace in Canada – a fact that is also supported by ECigIntelligence research showing use among smokers having jumped from 4% in 2010-2011 to 27% in 2013-2014.

– Freddie Dawson ECigIntelligence staff

Photo: Brande Jackson

Freddie Dawson

Senior news editor

Freddie studied at King’s College, London and City University and worked for publications including The Times, The Malay Mail, PathfinderBuzz and Solar Summary before joining the ECigIntelligence team. He has extensive experience in covering fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), manufacturing and technological innovation.