Skip to main content

Smoking, employability, and earnings

ASH
Sep 2020
Download PDF

Summary

This report sets out findings from a analysis conducted by Landman Economics for ASH looking at the impact of smoking on employment and earnings in terms of lost income across the UK.

Smoking has a significant negative impact on individual earnings and employment prospects, with long-term smokers being 7.5% less likely to be employed than non-smokers and smokers earning, on average, 6.8% less than non-smokers. The cumulative impact of these effects across the UK amounts to £14.1bn lost in income every year.

The report builds on previous estimates of the cost of smoking to society, further joining the dots between the importance of health to wealth and productivity across the UK.

You can view the full technical report by Landman Economics here.

A breakdown of the impact of smoking on employment and earnings (including regional and local authority figures) is available here.