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Epidemiology

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

  • there are about 10 million adults who smoke cigarettes in Great Britain:

    • about a sixth of the total UK population

    • in Great Britain 22 % of adult men and 19 % of adult women are smokers

    • among men smoking prevalence is highest in the 25 - 34 age group ( 32 % )

    • among women, smoking is highest among 20 - 24 year olds (29%)

In 1974, 51% of men and 41% of women smoked cigarettes - nearly half the adult population

Ex-smokers

  • 22 % of women and 27 % of men are now ex - smokers

Surveys show that about two - thirds of current smokers would like to stop smoking.

More than half (59 %) of all adults report that they have never smoked.

Smoking in young adults (3)

Reitsma et al modelled two indicators:

  • prevalence of current smoking tobacco use among young adults aged 15-24 years
  • age at which current smokers aged 20-54 years in 2019 began smoking regularly
  • synthesised data from 3625 nationally representative surveys on prevalence of smoking and 254 on age at initiation

Study results:

  • globally in 2019
    • an estimated 155 million (95% uncertainty interval 150-160) individuals aged 15-24 years were tobacco smokers
      • with a prevalence of 20.1% (19.4-20.8) among males and 4.95% (4.64-5.29) among females
    • estimated that:
      • 82.6% (82.1-83.1) of current smokers initiated between ages 14 and 25 years
      • 18.5% (17.7-19.3) of smokers began smoking regularly by age 15 years
  • although some countries have made substantial progress in reducing the prevalence of smoking tobacco use among young people, prevalence in 2019 still exceeds 20% among males aged 15-24 years in 120 countries and among females aged 15-24 years in 43 countries

Reference:

  • ASH (action on Smoking and Health). Smoking statistics (April 2014).
  • Reitsma MB et al. Spatial, temporal, and demographic patterns in prevalence of smoking tobacco use and initiation among young people in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019. Lancet Public Health 2021 (May 27th 2021)

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