Smoking

Overview
Data summary
Programs
Data considerations

1 in 10 NSW adults are daily smokers

In 2019, 11.2% of NSW adults were daily smokers. While there has been a long term reduction in smoking, since 2015, daily smoking rates have remained relatively stable. A similar long-term reduction in current (daily or occasional) smoking has also been observed, with 15.5% of adults reporting either daily or occasional smoking in 2019.

Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of disease and premature death in NSW. In Australia, tobacco use contributed to 41% of respiratory diseases, 22% of cancers, 12% of cardiovascular diseases, and 3.7% of endocrine disorders.

The impact of others’ smoking includes harmful effects to unborn babies and from exposure to second hand smoke.

See Tobacco and smoking control in NSW for more information.

Health indicator	Year	Per cent (95% CI)	Short-term trend (5 years)^*	Long-term trend (10 years)^*
Health indicator	Year	Daily adult smoker	Short-term trend (5 years)^*	Long-term trend (10 years)^*	2019	11.2 (10.1-12.2)	-1.7%
Current adult smoker	2019	15.5 (14.3-16.6)	+1.6%	-1.3%
Current teenage smoker ⁺	2017	6.4 (5.1-7.7)	-	-2.2%
Smoking during pregnancy ^#	2018	9.1 (8.9-9.3)		-2.9%

Sources: Adult smoking: NSW Population Health Survey; Teenage smoking: NSW Secondary School Survey; Smoking in Pregnancy: NSW Perinatal Data Collection
Current smoker = daily or occasional smoker
CI: Confidence Interval (see HealthStats NSW Methods paper on Confidence Intervals)
* The number next to an arrow represents the absolute change in prevalence between the current reporting year and that of the year either 5 or 10 years prior based on the trend analysis (see Methods). Trend analyses age-standardise each year to the 2001 population. A stable result means that there was not a statistically significantly trend up or down
# Trend analyses are not age-standardised
+ Periodic survey; no 5-year trend analysis performed. Long-term trend reflects the change since 2008.

Who smokes and who doesn’t in NSW?