Number of UK adults smoking reduces, ONS figures show

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have show that for the year 2015, of all adults in the UK 17.2 per cent smoked, down from 20.1 per cent of adults who smoked in 2010.
The report describes smoking data for the UK and its constituent countries from the Annual Population Survey in addition to smoking data for Great Britain from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey.

It outlined that of the constituent countries, 16.9 per cent of adults currently smoke in England; for Northern Ireland, this figure is 19.0 per cent; Scotland, 19.1 per cent; Wales, 18.1 per cent – in recent years, Scotland and Wales have seen the largest decreases in current smokers.

It highlighted that 19.3 per cent of men and 15.3 per cent of women smoked cigarettes.

The average cigarette consumption among smokers has also reduced to 11.3 cigarettes each day – the lowest level in over 30 years.

In 2015, of all adults in Great Britain who had previously smoked 56.7 per cent had quit – the highest proportion of quitters since 1974. The report found that smoking is more common among those earning less than £10,000 per year in addition to those who are currently looking for work.

The report observed that between 2010 to 2015, smoking has become less common across all ages in the UK, with the largest decrease observed among those aged 18 to 24 years.

Commenting on the reduced number of young smokers, Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) said: "We know that young people who try smoking are highly likely to grow up to become smokers, so the high numbers of young people reporting that they have never even tried smoking is good news."