Assessing addiction levels and helping heavy smokers to quit

Just over one in five of the UK adult population are regular cigarette smokers and there is now very little difference between men (21 per cent) and women (20 per cent).

Although this represents a significant decline in prevalence over the past several decades there are still sections of the population where smoking is far more common. In 2010 the proportion of adults in routine and manual occupations who smoked (28 per cent) was over twice that of those in professional and managerial positions (13 per cent).¹

Smoking eventually kills half of long term smokers and the main causes of death are cancer, cardiovascular disease and lung disease.