Smoking rate drops to 30-year low

August 24, 2011

A Census & Statistics Department survey shows the daily cigarette smoking prevalence among the Hong Kong population dropped to 11.1% last year, the lowest rate in the past 30 years.
 
Speaking at a press conference today, the Head of the Department of Health’s Tobacco Control Office Dr Raymond Ho said the Government and the community have made a committed effort in the areas of taxation, legislation and law enforcement, health promotion and provision of smoking-cessation services, resulting in the reduction in the smoking rate.
 
The 2010 daily cigarette smoking rate represented a drop of more than half from the high point of 23.3% in 1982.
 
The survey, conducted from October to December last year, showed there were 709,800 current smokers at the time of enumeration, accounting for 12% of all people aged 15 or over in Hong Kong.
 
Of those current smokers, 659,300 (92.9%) were daily smokers and 50,500 (7.1%) were non-daily smokers. There were 301,900 ex-daily smokers who previously had a daily smoking habit, representing 5.1% of all people aged 15 or over.
 
Of those daily smokers, 657,000 (99.6%) were daily cigarette smokers and 4,400 (0.7%) were daily smokers who consumed other forms of tobacco. Analysed by age group, 62.8% of them were aged 40 or over; 22.1%, aged 30-39; 13.5%, aged 20-29; and 1.7%, aged 15-19.
 
About 52.9% of the daily cigarette smokers consumed 1-10 cigarettes in a day; and 43.7% consumed 11-20 cigarettes. The daily cigarette smokers consumed an average of 13.4 cigarettes a day. Analysed by age group, daily cigarette smokers aged 50-59 smoked an average of 14.7 cigarettes a day, which were more than those consumed by the daily cigarette smokers in other age groups, whose average daily consumption of cigarettes was around 8.6-14.
 
The survey also showed nearly half of the daily smokers (44.3%) had tried or wanted to give up smoking.
 
As of August 23, the department’s smoking-cessation hotline had received 14,787 calls this year, more than the 13,880 calls received in all of 2010.
 
Dr Ho said they will enhance services to help people quit smoking through collaboration with different organisations.
 
The department has also launched a free smartphone application to help people kick the habit. Smokers are encouraged to call the department’s smoking-cessation hotline, 1833 183, and download the application.