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24 A reduction in adult smoking prevalence and, in particular, a reduction in adult smoking prevalence in manual socio-economic groups (England).
Baseline and trends: Baseline year for adult smoking prevalence – 1996 – 28 per cent smoking prevalence for all adults. Baseline year for manual socio-economic groups – 1998 – 32 per cent smoking prevalence in manual groups (compared with 27 per cent for all adults and 21 per cent in non-manual groups). Smoking prevalence fell steadily from 1974 to 1992, and remained broadly constant between 1992 and 1998. Between 1998 and 2005 (based on weighted data), smoking prevalence has decreased slightly for all groups. The trend for routine and manual groups (as defined by the new National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) – see definition below) has remained broadly constant since 2001, the first year for which these data are available.
| 1988 | 1990 | 1992 | 1994 | 1996 | 1998 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All adults | 31% | 29% | 28% | 26% | 28% | 27% | ||||||
| Non-manual groups | 25% | 24% | 23% | 21% | 22% | 21% | ||||||
| Manual groups | 37% | 35% | 33% | 32% | 34% | 32% | ||||||
| 1998* | 2000* | 2001* | 2002* | 2003* | 2004* | 2005* | ||||||
| All adults | 28% | 27% | 27% | 26% | 25% | 25% | 24% | |||||
| Non-manual groups | 22% | 23% | 21% | 20% | 21% | 20% | 19% | |||||
| Manual groups | 33% | 31% | 32% | 31% | 31% | 30% | 29% | |||||
| Routine and manual groups (NS-SEC) | - | - | 33% | 31% | 32% | 31% | 31% | |||||
| *General Household Survey data was weighted in 2000 and retrospectively for 1998 for comparative purposes. Weighted data cannot be reliably compared with unweighted data. See definition for full explanation. Manual/non-manual groups data relate to the old Socio-economic Group Classification. Routine and manual groups data relate to National Statistics Socio-economic Classification, introduced in 2001. | ||||||||||||
Definition: Percentage of all adults and adults in manual socio-economic groups aged 16 and over in England who smoke cigarettes. Since 2000, figures have been based on the socio-economic group of the household reference person. Prior to 2000, figures were based on the head of the household. Members of the Armed Forces, persons in inadequately described occupations and all persons who have never worked, have not been shown as separate categories but are included in the figures for all adults.
The manual socio-economic group category includes skilled manual (including foremen and supervisors) and own-account non-professional, semi-skilled manual, personal service and unskilled manual workers. Figures for 2001 – 03 are based on the new NS-SEC recoded to produce the manual/non-manual split from the old socio-economic group, and should therefore be treated with caution.
The table also shows data since 2001 for routine and manual groups as defined by the new NS-SEC, to reflect the Department of Health PSA target (set as part of the 2004 Spending Review). From April 2001, the NS-SEC was introduced for all official statistics and surveys. It replaced Social Class Based on Occupation and socioeconomic groups. Full details can be found in the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification User Manual 2002 (Office for National Statistics, 2002).
The General Household Survey is a continuous survey that has been running since 1971 and is based each year on a sample of the general population resident in private households in Great Britain. In surveys prior to 2000, the results have been presented as unweighted data. However, in 2000, the decision was made by the Office for National Statistics to weight the data to compensate for underrepresentation of people in some groups, for example young men. The trend table shows weighted and unweighted data for 1998, to give an indication of weighting. Although the difference was slight (it increased prevalence of smoking by one percentage point), caution should be exercised when comparing weighted data for 2000 onwards with unweighted data for previous years.
Data source: Office for National Statistics. Results from the 2004 General Household Survey, analysed for England.
Linked to Smoking Kills White Paper target: To reduce adult smoking in all social classes so that the overall rate falls from 28 per cent to 24 per cent or less by 2010, with a fall to 26 per cent by 2005.
Linked to NHS Cancer Plan target: To reduce smoking rates among manual groups from 32 per cent in 1998 to 26 per cent by 2010, so that we can narrow the gap between manual and non-manual groups.
Further information
Tables setting out the prevalence of smoking from the latest General Household Survey are available from: www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=5756