Statistics on Smoking, England - 2019 [NS] [PAS]

This part presents information about behaviour and attitudes towards smoking, and includes:

• NHS Stop Smoking Services information on quit attempts and successful quit rates. The latest annual data is for 2017/18. 2018/19 data is expected to be published on 3 Sept 2019^₁.
• Young people’s (secondary school pupils aged 11 to 15) attitudes towards smoking, taken from the Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People survey (SDD).

Setting a quit date 

• The number of people setting a quit date fell for the sixth consecutive year to 274,021 in 2017/18. This represents a decrease of 11% on 2016/17.
• The reduction in recent years may be partly due to the increased use of e-cigarettes which are widely available outside of these services.

Successful self-reported quitters

• The number of successful self-reported quitters also fell for the fifth consecutive year to 138,426. This was a decrease of 11% on 2016/17.
• This means that the self-reported quit rate was 51% which has remained fairly stable in recent years.

CO validated successful quitters

• 36% (98,802) of people setting a quit date had their results confirmed by Carbon Monoxide (CO) validation.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

^{1. Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services in England: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/statistics-on-nhs-stop-smoking-services-in-england​​​​​​​}

^{2. Comparison excludes LAs who are still running a service but did not submit data for all quarters in 2016/17 and 2017/18}

^{3. See report for details on definitions.}        

Pupils’ attitudes towards smoking, by year

24% of pupils reported that it was OK to try a cigarette to see what it was like, and 9% reported that it was OK to smoke once a week.

Since these questions were first asked, there has been a general decline in positive attitudes towards smoking.

Pupils’ attitudes towards smoking by people of their same age, by age

Younger pupils were less likely to think that it was OK to try smoking to see what it was like; 5% of 11 year olds, compared with 47% of 15 year olds, or that it was OK to smoke once a week; 3% and 17% respectively.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________