A detailed picture of the nation's smoking habits, and desire to quit, are available from the Office for National Statistics to mark No Smoking Day on Wednesday 11 March 2009.
• Smoking fell to its lowest recorded level in 2007 – 21 per cent of the population of Great Britain aged 16 and over.
• 66 per cent of smokers said they wanted to give up.
• 17 per cent of smokers said they lit up within five minutes of waking. Heavy smokers are more likely to light up immediately and 35 per cent of those smoking 20 or more a day do so, compared with 3 per cent of those smoking fewer than 10 a day
• Heavier smokers are less likely to want to give up. The proportion wanting to give up in 2007 was highest among those smoking, on average, fewer than 20 cigarettes a day.
• Health concerns are the most commonly mentioned reason for quitting, with 86 per cent of people who want to give up mentioning at least one health reason. After health, the next most commonly mentioned reasons are costs (27 per cent), family pressure (20 per cent) and the effect on children (15 per cent).
• Married or cohabiting people smoke less (18 per cent) than singles (28 per cent).
• Cigarette smoking is lower among households classified as professional and managerial (15 per cent) than among those classified as routine and manual (26 per cent).
• Smoking is highest in the 20-24 age group (31 per cent) and lowest among those aged 60 and over (12 per cent).
ONS publishes two reports on smoking attitudes and behaviour each year. Smoking and Drinking Among Adults is drawn from the long-running General Household Survey, and presents trends in cigarette smoking according to personal characteristics such as sex, age, socio-economic classification and economic activity status. It also comments on the prevalence of cigarette smoking in different parts of Great Britain.
A second report, Smoking Related Behaviour and Attitudes, forms part of a series of studies carried out by ONS for the Department of Health and NHS Information Centre for health and social care. The study is conducted as part of the National Statistics Opinions (Omnibus) Survey and focuses on people's attitudes to smoking and smoking behaviour. Targets relating to the prevalence of smoking are monitored by other surveys, but the Opinions survey has been used to monitor changes in attitudes towards smoking in general and towards smoking in public places.
Note: Figures refer to the situation in Great Britain in 2007.
printer-friendly
No Smoking Day news release