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Written question asked by David Drew (Labour) on Monday, 23 June 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 25 June 2008. It was answered by Baroness Primarolo (Labour) on Thursday, 3 July 2008 on behalf of the Department of Health.


Smoking

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of people aged (a) under 16, (b) 17 to 25, (c) 26 to 45, (d) 46 to 65 and (e) 66 years or over who smoke on a regular basis, broken down by sex; what proportion of the total population of each age group these figures represent; and what the equivalent figures were in (i) 2003 and (ii) 1998.
Answer

The information requested is not available in the exact format requested.The latest information on the prevalence of smoking among adults aged 16 and over in Great Britain, by gender and age group, in 2006 is available from the ““General Household Survey 2006: Smoking and drinking among adults, 2006””. This information is shown in the following table.Data on the prevalence of smoking among adults aged 16 and over in England, by gender and age group, for 1998, 2003 and 2005 are available in ““Statistics on Smoking: England, 2007””, in table 2.2, on page 16. Data is given for those aged 16-19, 20-24, 25-34, 35-49, 50-59 and those aged 60 and over. Copies of this publication have been placed in the Library.Information on the proportion of children aged 11 to 15 in England, who were regular smokers, by gender, for 1998, 2003 and 2006 are available in ““Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England in 2006”” in table 2.1, on page 38. Equivalent estimates of the number of regular smokers in 2006 among those aged 11 to 15 can be found on page 156, section 5.3. Copies of this publication are available in the Library.

Table 1: Prevalence of cigarette smoking among adults¹, by age and gender, 2006², Great Britain
All ages 16-19 20-24 25-34 35-49 50-59 60 and over
All adults (Percentage) 22 20 31 30 25 22 12
Men (Percentage) 23 20 33 33 26 23 13
Women (Percentage) 21 20 29 26 25 22 12
Weighted bases (Thousand)
All adults 42,639 2,573 2,819 6,660 12,027 6,914 11,646
Men 19,918 1,295 1,270 3,140 5,636 3,337 5,240
Women 22,721 1,278 1,548 3,520 6,392 3,577 6,406
Unweighted bases
All adults 16,682 815 883 2,373 4,583 2,887 5,141
Men 7,677 392 376 1,053 2,093 1,374 2,389
Women 9,005 423 507 1,320 2,490 1,513 2,752
¹ Aged 16 and over.
² Results for 2006 include longitudinal data.
Source:
General Household Survey 2006, Office for National Statistics.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
213918; 478 c1121-2W
Session
2007-08
Related items
Deposited Paper DEP2008-1792
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Deposited papers
House of Commons
Subjects
Smoking
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk