High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Smoking
Smoking remains one of the most damaging factors in Scotland's poor health record. It is estimated that in 2004, 13,473 deaths in Scotland were attributed to smoking, which equated to 24% of all deaths.
The percentage of persons aged 16 or more in Scotland who smoke has fallen from 30.4% in 1999 to 24.7% in 2007. The Scottish Government has established a National Indicator to reduce the percentage of the adult population who smoke to 22% by 2010.
Source: Scottish Household Survey
Smoking is highly correlated with deprivation, and smoking prevalence in deprived areas is consistently higher than the Scottish average. Although smoking prevalence in these areas has decreased in recent years, it has fallen more slowly than for Scotland as a whole.
There is a further national target to reduce smoking during pregnancy, which seeks a reduction in the proportion of women who smoke during pregnancy from 29% to 23% between 1995 and 2005 and to 20% by 2010. The proportion of women smoking during pregnancy in 2004/05 was 22.7%.
Sources: Scottish Household Survey, NHS Information Services Division (ISD Scotland) SMR02.
Note: data for pregnant women are based on financial years rather than calendar years, e.g. the figure plotted against 2005 relates to 2004/05.
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