Smoking statistics and data in England in 2016

1. Local Tobacco Control Profiles
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/tobacco-control
Responsible statistician/product lead: Clare Griffiths
For queries relating to this document, please contact: tobacco.profiles@phe.gov.uk.
First published: November 2017
© Crown copyright 2017
Re-use of Crown copyright material (excluding logos) is allowed under the terms of the Open Government Licence, visit
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/2/ for terms and conditions

2. Key Facts for England
2 Local Tobacco Control Profiles
Smoking prevalence in adults
• Smoking prevalence in adults was 15.5% in
2016
• For routine and manual occupations this
increases to 26.5%
• The prevalence of women smoking at time of
delivery in 2016/17 was 10.7% in England.
• Smoking prevalence was 40.5% for people
with serious mental health illness in 2014/15
Smoking prevalence in young people
• It is estimated that 6.7% of 15 year olds
were regular smokers in 2016 and 8.1%
occasional smokers.
• 25% of 15 year olds had tried an e-cigarette
in 2016 and 2% were regular users.
Impact of Smoking
• For 2016/17 the estimated tax gap from illicit
tobacco was £1,800 million, which
represents 15% of cigarette sales.
Smoking related mortality
• Smoking attributable mortality was 272.0 per
100,000 (age 35+) in England for 2014-16.
• There were an estimated 1,579 years of life
lost per 100,000 due to smoking attributable
illnesses, including various cancers, heart
disease, stroke and chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease.
Smoking related ill health
• In 2015/16 there were 1,726 smoking
attributable hospital admissions per 100,000
(age 35+)
• Other smoking related health conditions
include lung and oral cancers, premature
births, low birth weight babies and asthma.
Smoking quitters
• In 2016/17 307,507 people set a quit date.
• There were 2,248 successful quitters per
100,000 smokers, 72% of which were CO
validated.

3. Smoking prevalence in adults
3 Local Tobacco Control Profiles
Various data sources can be used to estimate smoking prevalence in adults, which
produce differing results due to the survey
method¹.
The most widely used survey for estimating
smoking prevalence is the Annual Population
Survey due to its large sample size and
frequency (around 175,000 people in England
per year).
1 See https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/tobacco-control/supporting-information/further-info for more details
2 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/towards-a-smoke-free-generation-tobacco-control-plan-for-england
Smoking prevalence (APS) in Upper Tier Local
Authorities ranged from 7.4% in Harrow to
24.2% in Kingston upon Hull in 2016.
There has been a decline in smoking
prevalence in recent years (from 19.3% in
2012 to 15.5% in 2016), however, as
highlighted in the 2017 Tobacco Control Plan²,
there remains a higher prevalence of smoking
in routine and manual occupations compared
with England as a whole (31.1% in 2012 to
26.5% in 2016).
Data
source
Latest time
period
Current
smokers
Ex-smokers
Never
smoked
APS 2016 15.5 26.2 58.3
GPPS 2015/16 16.4 27.5 56.1
QOF 2015/16 18.1 - -

4. Smoking prevalence in adults
Inequalities in smoking prevalence –APS 2016
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% LCI UCI
Sex Males 17.4 17.1 17.7
Females 13.7 13.5 13.9
Age 25-29 yrs 21.6 20.8 22.4
30-34 yrs 19.6 18.9 20.3
35-39 yrs 18.1 17.4 18.7
40-44 yrs 17.1 16.5 17.8
45-49 yrs 17.1 16.5 17.8
50-54 yrs 16.6 16.0 17.2
55-59 yrs 15.4 14.8 16.0
60-64 yrs 13.4 12.8 14.0
65-69 yrs 10.9 10.4 11.4
70-74 yrs 8.7 8.2 9.2
75-79 yrs 7.2 6.6 7.8
80-84 yrs 4.0 3.4 4.6
85-89 yrs 3.7 3.0 4.5
90+ yrs 2.2 1.3 3.0
Mixed 20.8 18.7 23.0
White 16.2 16.0 16.4
Other 14.6 13.1 16.0
Unknown 13.0 6.0 19.9
Black 10.3 9.4 11.2
Asian 9.4 8.8 10.0
Chinese 7.4 5.6 9.3
Bisexual 24.1 20.6 27.7
Gay/lesbian 23.6 21.1 26.0
Other 16.8 13.7 19.9
Heterosexual 16.3 16.1 16.6
Ethnic
groups
Smoking prevalence in adults
Category
Sexuality
% LCI UCI
Religion None 19.6 19.3 20.0
Other 16.0 14.6 17.3
Christian 13.9 13.7 14.1
Buddhist 13.4 10.9 15.8
Muslim 12.5 11.7 13.2
Jewish 9.9 7.7 12.1
Hindu 6.5 5.5 7.5
Sikh 5.5 4.2 6.9
Very good 11.8 11.5 12.1
Good 16.2 15.9 16.4
Fair 19.6 19.1 20.1
Bad 25.1 24.2 26.0
Very bad 26.5 24.8 28.2
Category
Smoking prevalence in adults
Health
status

5. Smoking prevalence in adults
Pregnancy and mental health
5 Local Tobacco Control Profiles
There are now two indicators for smoking
status at time of delivery, due to a change in
the method used to calculate this indicator. The
current method (10.7% for 2016/17) excludes
unknowns from the denominator, while the
historical method includes all maternities. The
proportion of unknowns in the recording of
smoking status remains a concern (2% of
maternities in 2016/17), and by taking this into
account we are able to obtain a more accurate
estimate.
There remains variation between local
authorities, with values ranging from 28.1% in
Blackpool to 2.3% in Kensington and Chelsea
(current method).
40.5% of adults with serious mental illness
were recorded as current smokers in 2014/15,
with all local authorities recording proportions
significantly higher than the smoking prevalence
in England (16.9% in 2015). Values ranged from
52.3% in Kingston upon Hull to 27.2% in Harrow.

6. Smoking prevalence in young people
6 Local Tobacco Control Profiles
There are two surveys use to estimate smoking
prevalence in young people at age 15.
The Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use in Young
People is a biennial (previously annual) survey,
providing national estimates for regular smokers
and occasional smokers.
• Latest figures for 2016 showed 6.7% of 15
year olds smoked regularly and a further
8.1% smoked occasionally.
• 25% of 15 year olds had tried an e-cigarette
in 2016 and 2% were regular users.
The What about YOUth? survey was carried out
in 2014/15* and provides local authority
estimates, although there are currently no plans
for this to be repeated. Some key findings from
the survey were:
• regular smoking prevalence was 5.5%
• occasional smoking prevalence was 2.7%
• The highest prevalence of regular smoking
was 11.1% in Blackpool and the lowest was
1.3% in Waltham Forest.
• Occasional smoking ranged from 7.6% in
Richmond upon Thames to 0.6% in Sandwell.
• There appears to be no relationship between
smoking at age 15 and deprivation levels in
the local authority.
• 18.4% of 15 year olds have ever tried an e-
cigarette, and 15.2% have ever used other
tobacco products.
*The smoking prevalence estimates from the What About YOUth? (WAY) survey are lower than
those seen in the SDD survey. This is likely to be mainly due to the differences in survey method
used. The WAY survey was answered at home whereas the SDD survey was answered at school
under exam conditions. It appears that 15 year olds feel more able to honestly answer questions
on smoking when asked away from the home setting.

7. Smoking related mortality
7 Local Tobacco Control Profiles
Smoking attributable mortality was 272 per 100,000 population (age 35+) in England for 2014-16.
Of this, 26.5 per 100,000 deaths were related to heart disease and 8.8 per 100,000 to stroke.
There is clear variation between local authorities, with smoking attributable mortality ranging from
499 per 100,000 in Manchester to 162 per 100,000 in Harrow.
A high proportion of deaths related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung
cancer and oral cancer are also caused by smoking.
There were 1,579 years of life lost per 100,000
due to smoking related illness in the period
2014-16 (age 35-74 years). There was a clear
deprivation gradient, with 2,222 per 100,000
years of life lost in the most deprived compared
with 966 per 100,000 in the least deprived.
Smoking is a risk factor for stillbirth and
neonatal mortality, which in England in 2013-15
had rates of 4.6 per 1,000 live and stillbirths
and 2.7 per 1,000 live births respectively.

8. Smoking related illness
8 Local Tobacco Control Profiles
There were 1,726 smoking attributable hospital admissions
per 100,000 population (age 35+) in 2015/16 in England. In
upper tier local authorities rates varied from 955 per 100,000
in Wokingham to 3,142 per 100,000 in Barnsley.
The England rate of emergency admissions for COPD was
411 per 100,000, and for asthma in young people (under 19
years) was 202.4 per 100,000. Both indicators show that
figures for males are significantly higher than females (438
compared to 395 per 100,000 for COPD and 235.4
compared to 167.7 per 100,000 for asthma).
Lung and oral cancers are highly associated with smoking
and registration rates for 2013-15 in England were 78.9 per
100,000 for lung cancer and 14.5 per 100,000 for oral
cancer.
Smoking in pregnancy can affect newborn babies. In
England there were 78.4 premature births per 1,000 live
births in 2013-15, and 2.8% of babies born in 2015 at term
(37+weeks gestation) were low birth weight (under 2500g).

9. Impact of smoking
9 Local Tobacco Control Profiles
Indicative tobacco sales figures for 2013 estimate that over £15,446 million was spend on
tobacco products. Between regions, the estimated sales ranged from £917 million in the North
East to £2,355 million in the South East.
There was an estimated tax gap of £1,800
million due to the combined illicit markets in
tobacco in 2016/17, which is an increase on
the estimates for recent years. An estimated
15% of cigarette sales were attributed to illicit
tobacco.
Of all the accidental fires in England in 2015/16,
7.8% were ignited by smoking related
materials. And of all the fatalities from
accidental fires, 41.4% related to fires
cause by smoking related materials.
The What About YOUth? Survey asked 15 year olds about their perception of the harm of
smoking and on average 91% of respondents recognised that smoking can cause harm to non-
smokers, which demonstrates that young people in general understand the effects of second-
hand smoke.

10. Smoking quitters
10 Local Tobacco Control Profiles
In England in 2016/17, 4,434 people set a quit date per 100,000 smokers, which continues the
decreasing trend seen in recent years. This perhaps explains why the number of successful
quitters also continues to decline, with 2,248 successful quitters at 4 weeks per 100,000
smokers in 2016/17, 72.4% of whom were CO validated (1,627 per 100,000 smokers).
On average in 2016/17, the cost per quitter in England was £493, which is similar to the cost in
2015/16 of £479. Between regions, costs ranged from £359 per quitter in the East Midlands to
£581 in the North East.
The completeness of recording of
social class by stop smoking
services remains a concern, as it is
essential that they monitor how
their service is being used by the
higher risk group in routine and
manual occupations. Twenty-six of
the local authorities included had
100% of NS-SEC status recorded
in 2016/17, however, the average
for England was 91.2% and the
lowest was just 12%.