According to analysis carried out by Cancer Research UK, the number of cigarettes smoked each year in England continues to fall by more than a billion a year.
On average monthly cigarette consumption fell by a quarter between 2011 and 2018, equating to roughly 118 million fewer cigarettes smoked each month. The latest available data shows only 16% of adults in England smoke, which is a “step in the right direction” according to health experts. Figures from 2018 showed just 14% of people over 18 in England smoked cigarettes, down 5% from 2011. Its also known that the government recently pledged to have a smoke-free country by 2030, a step forward in the fight against preventable ill health.
Smoking is one of the most damaging habits, resulting in millions of preventable deaths every year.
Dr Sarah Jackson, from UCL’s Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, said: “It’s brilliant that over a billion fewer cigarettes are being sold and smoked in England every year.
“The decline in national cigarette consumption has been dramatic and exceeded the decline in smoking prevalence, which, over the same time period, was around 15%. This means that not only are fewer people smoking, but those who continue to smoke are smoking less.”
George Butterworth, at Cancer Research UK, added “Big tobacco said that introducing stricter regulation wouldn’t work and campaigned against it, but this is proof that smoking trends are heading in the right direction. But smoking is still the biggest preventable cause of cancer, and certain groups have much higher rates of smoking, such as routine and manual workers, so we can’t stop here and think job done.”
