§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of the population smoke, broken down by(a) sex, (b) age, (c) region and (d) social class; and if he will make a statement. [178932]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonOur comprehensive tobacco control programme is aimed at all smokers, to discourage people from starting to smoke and encourage and help those who do smoke to stop.
The information requested is shown in the following tables.
1350W
Table 1: Prevalence of smoking cigarettes among adults aged 16 and over, by age and sex—England, 2002 Percentage Men Women All persons 16–19 22 28 25 20–24 38 38 38 25–34 36 33 34 35–49 29 27 28 50–59 26 24 25 60 and over 16 14 15 Total 27 25 26 Source: Office National Statistics (ONS) Living in Britain: Results from the 2002 General Household Survey.
Table 2: Prevalence of smoking cigarettes among adults aged 16 and over, by Government Office Region—England, 2002 Percentage North East 27 North West 28 Yorkshire and the Humber 27 East Midlands 24 West Midlands 23 East of England 25 London 24 South East 26 South West 25 Total 26 Source: ONS Living in Britain: Results from the 2002 General Household Survey.
Table 3: Prevalence of smoking cigarettes among adults aged 16 and over, by socio-economic-classification (NS-SEC)—England,
2002
Percentages Managerial and professional 19 Intermediate 26 Routine and manual 31 Total 26 Note: Persons whose head of household/household reference person was a full time student, in the armed forces, had an inadequately described occupation or had never worked are not shown as separate categories but are included in the total. The total also includes some missing cases. Source: ONS Living in Britain: Results from the 2002 General Household Survey.