Ranked: These are officially the most vape-obsessed Russell Group unis in 2025

Guys, we only have only have two months, one week and one day until buying disposable vapes in England and Wales becomes illegal. It turns out that students at some Russell Group unis will be feeling the loss way more than others. Haypp worked out where in the UK vaping is most popular, so we compiled a list of the most vape-obsessed Russell Group uni towns in 2025.

The least vape-obsessed Russell Group uni town is the University of Cambridge. In fact, Cambridge is the second least vapey place in the whole of the UK. I guess Oxbridge students are too busy having daily meltdowns over their homework to go out somewhere and vape. At the other end of the scale, Manchester is the most vape-obsessed Russell Group uni. This is not much of a surprise, considering The Tab’s most recent drugs survey revealed that Manchester students use the most recreational drugs, smoke the most weed and take the most ket. Funnily enough, Manchester is also the Russell Group uni which receives the most applications.

To figure this out, Haypp worked out how many vape shops each UK city or town has per 100,000 people, and how often people Google vaping in each area. They then calculated a “vape score” for each place in the UK. The data for the University of Warwick refers to the town of Coventry, which is confusingly where Warwick Uni actually is.

So, here are all the Russell Group unis ranked by the “vape score” of their location, and how vape-obsessed people are there in 2025:

23. University of Cambridge – 1.45

22. University of Exeter – 2.83

21. University of Bristol – 3.08

20. University of Liverpool – 3.14

19. University of Southampton – 3.15

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18. University of Sheffield – 3.17

17. University of Warwick – 3.21

Well, you’ve got to find something to spice up a night out in Coventry

16. University of Nottingham – 3.27

15. University of York – 3.67

=13. University of Glasgow – 3.72

=13. Cardiff University – 3.72

12. University of Edinburgh – 3.81

=7. King’s College London, Imperial College London, Queen Mary University of London, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University College London (UCL) – 4.15

6. Queen’s University Belfast – 4.45

5. University of Birmingham – 4.61

4. University of Leeds – 5.05

3. Newcastle University – 5.88

2. Durham University- 6.16

1. University of Manchester – 7.88

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Feature image credit: Esther Knowles