(Image: Sean Dempsey/PA)
The number of people who smoke in Edinburgh has almost halved in the last decade, according to new figures.
An average of 8.7% of adults in the capital smoked between 2021 and 2025, official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show, down from 17.1% between 2012 and 2016.
The figure amounts to a 49.1% fall in smokers across the city.
The statistics have been analysed and compiled by online vape company Ecigone.
The company believes the decline in smoking coincides with people using vaping as a way of giving up nicotine.
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Across the UK, the average fell from 17.9% to 11.1%, down 38%.
In Scotland it fell by 37.8%, from 20.1% to 12.5%.
Elsewhere in Scotland, the number of people who smoke in the Scottish Borders fell by 43.2%, from 18.3% to 10.4%.
Shane Margereson, founder of Ecigone, said: “When the first of these figures were collected, very few people trying to stop smoking used a vape.
“By the time of the latest ones, vapes had been the most popular stop smoking aid in England for more than a decade.
“Nobody can say exactly how much of the fall is down to that, because tax rises, plain packs and stop smoking services have all played a part, but the timing is hard to ignore.”
He added: “Seeing smoking in the Scottish Borders fall by 43.2 per cent in about a decade is a big shift in a habit that used to be everywhere.”