• March 28, 2024

Big fall in tobacco smoking among Scotland’s adults

The number of Scots who smoke has fallen to one in five of the adult population, according to a BBC online story citing a Scottish government survey.

The Scottish Household Survey for 2014 found that 20 percent of adults smoked (22 percent of men and 19 percent of women), down from 23 percent in 2011.

The Scottish government and campaigners welcomed the figures as a step towards a ‘[tobacco] smoke-free Scotland’.

But the survey showed far more people smoked in the most deprived communities than in the least deprived areas.

It showed that 34 percent of adults in the most deprived communities smoked, down from 39 percent in 2013, while nine percent of those in the least deprived areas smoked.

The results showed also that 48 percent of those who were permanently sick or disabled and 46 percent of those who were unemployed and seeking work were current smokers.

The survey’s overall findings were said to represent the sharpest year-to-year decline in smoking rates since 1999.

The government’s target is to cut the proportion of smokers to five percent or under by 2034.