Smoking Facts at a Glance

Tobacco kills up to two in three of its long-term users. Around 7 million deaths a year globally are due to tobacco.[1] Of those, around 5.8 million deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.7 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to secondhand smoke. Around 80% of the world's 1.3 billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries.[2]

In the UK, in 2025, 9.8% of adults smoke; 11.3% of men and 8.2% of women.[3]

In 2025, adult smoking rates by each country in the UK were:

• England: 9.5% 
• Wales: 11.1%
• Scotland: 11.4% 
• Northern Ireland: 9.9%

Since 2011, the largest fall in smoking prevalence in the UK has been among 18- to 24-year-olds (25.7% in 2011 to 7.2% in 2025).[3] Those aged 18-24 and those aged 65+ are now the two least likely groups to smoke (both 7.2%). Although people aged 65 and over are more likely than younger people to have ever been smokers, they are also more likely to have stopped smoking. Those aged 45 to 54 years have the highest proportion of current smokers in 2025 (12.4%).

In the UK, one in six people in routine and manual occupations smoke (16.9%), compared with one in seventeen people in managerial and professional occupations (5.9%).[3] Someone who rents through an LA or HA is four times as likely to smoke as someone who owns their house outright.[3] Young people whose caregivers smoke are more than twice as likely to have tried cigarettes and four times as likely to regularly smoke.[4]

In England, one in four adults with a long-term mental health condition smoke (24.0%), while four in ten adults with serious mental illness smoke (40.5%).[5]

Smoking prevalence among young people has halved in the past ten years.[6] About 400,000 11- to 15-year-olds in England have tried smoking at some point, which is about one in ten (11%). About 100,000 smoke now. More than one in fifty 15-year-olds in England smoke more than once a week (2.2%).[7]

See also:

ASH Key Topic Smoking: what you need to know

ASH Fact Sheet Smoking statistics

ASH Tool Inequalities dashboard

ASH Key Topic Youth smoking

ASH Fact Sheet Young people and smoking

Exposure to other people’s smoke increases the risk of lung cancer in non-smokers by 20-30% and coronary heart disease by 25-35%.[8] It is especially harmful to babies and children.

In England, 4.2% of mothers smoked at the time of delivery in 2025-26.[9] This represents a strong decline in recent years, down from 5.6% in 2024/25, 7.4% in 2023/2024 and under half the rate from ten years ago in 2015/16 (10.6%).

See also:

ASH Key Topic Secondhand smoke

ASH Fact Sheet Secondhand smoke

Smoking is one of the leading causes of preventable death and disease in the UK. Data from the Global Burden Study of Disease 2023 reports that more than one in ten deaths in the United Kingdom were caused by tobacco (12%). One in five cancer deaths (19%) were due to tobacco.[3]

See also:

ASH Fact Sheet Smoking statistics

Tobacco smoke contains many chemicals that are harmful to both smokers and non-smokers. Breathing even a little tobacco smoke can be harmful.[10] Of the more than 7,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, at least 250 are known to be harmful, including hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. At least 69 of these chemicals can cause cancer, including arsenic, benzene, and cadmium.[11]

See also:

ASH Fact Sheet What’s in a cigarette?

ASH Key Topic Smoking: what you need to know

• Tobacco kills up to 2 in 3 people who use it long term.[12, 13]
• On average, people who smoke all their lives will die 10 years younger than non-smokers.[14]
• It is estimated that for lifelong smokers, each cigarette will reduce their life expectancy by roughly 20 minutes.[15]
• Smoking can cause cancer almost anywhere in the body.[16, 17]
• About seven in ten lung cancer cases in the UK are caused by smoking.[18]
• Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body and affects a person’s overall health and well as their life expectancy.[19]
• Tobacco is the only legal product that kills many of its users when used exactly as intended by manufacturers.
• Smoking ranks among the top causes of cardiovascular disease, including coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, peripheral arterial disease, and abdominal aortic aneurysm.[20]
• Smoking is associated with an increased risk for a wide range of diseases including COPD, asthma, diabetes, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, mental health issues, and dementia.[21]
• Smoking is associated with an increased risk of early menopause in women.[22]
• Smoking in pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth and low birthweight. Maternal smoking after birth has been linked with a threefold increase in the risk of sudden infant death.[23,24]
• Smoking is a major risk factor for impotence in men.[25]
• Smoking significantly increases the risk of impairment of olfactory function, negatively affecting smokers’ sense of smell and taste.[26]
• Smoking is a risk factor for dental hygiene problems, including more serious conditions such as chronic periodontal disease.[27]

See also:

ASH Fact Sheet Smoking and cancer

ASH Fact Sheet Smoking, the heart and circulation

ASH Fact Sheet Smoking and respiratory disease

ASH Fact Sheet Smoking, pregnancy and fertility

ASH Fact Sheet Smoking and mental health

ASH Fact Sheet Smoking and other health conditions

Smoking costs England an estimated £44.8 billion per year, while revenue from cigarette and hand-rolled tobacco taxation (excluding VAT) only brings in about £7.5bn per year.[28]

See also:

ASH Key Topic The economic impact of smoking

ASH Tool Ready Reckoner

Two of the largest tobacco companies in the world are headquartered in the UK.

• British American Tobacco (BAT) is the UK’s largest tobacco company, and it is headquartered in London. As of 2025, it is the second largest tobacco manufacturing company in the world based on net sales, after Philip Morris International.[29] The total revenue in 2025 was £25.6bn.[30]

• Imperial Brands, formerly Imperial Tobacco Group, is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom. It is the world’s third-largest international cigarette company measured by net sales, after Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco. The total net revenue in 2025 was £8.3bn.[31]

1965: all television adverts for cigarettes banned

1986: adverts banned in cinemas

The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act (2002) was responsible for getting rid of the remaining forms of tobacco advertising:

• February 2003 – Ban on print media and billboard advertising
• May 2003 – Ban on tobacco direct marketing (promotions)
• July 2003 – Sponsorship of events within the UK
• December 2004 – Large adverts in shops, pubs and clubs banned
• 2005 – Sponsorship of global events, including Formula 1 and snooker tournaments

A smoking ban, making it illegal to smoke in all enclosed workplaces (including offices/shops/restaurants/bars) in England, came into force in July 2007. Similar bans had already been introduced by the rest of the United Kingdom: in Scotland in March 2006, Wales and Northern Ireland in April 2007.

The legal age for purchasing tobacco was raised from 16 to 18 in England, Scotland and Wales in October 2007. In Northern Ireland this came into force in September 2008.

Cigarette vending machines were banned in England in October 2011, in Scotland in April 2013, in Wales in February 2012 and in Northern Ireland in March 2012.

A tobacco point of sale display ban was introduced in large shops (>280 m2 floor area) in England in April 2012. This entered into force in Wales in December 2012, in Northern Ireland in October 2012 and in Scotland in April 2013. The sale display ban was extended to small retailers across all jurisdictions in April 2015.

A smoking ban in cars (with passengers under 18) came into force in England and Wales in October 2015. Scotland introduced the same law in December 2016, and Northern Ireland in February 2022.

Rules that cigarettes and tobacco must be sold in plain green packets came into force across the UK in May 2017.

Legislation to gradually raise the age of sale for tobacco is in effect from 1st January 2027. This will mean people born in or after 2009 can never be legally sold tobacco.

See also:

ASH Fact Sheet Key dates in tobacco legislation

Please cite as: Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Smoking facts at a glance. October 2026

Online links last checked October 2026.

[1] Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Global Burden Study of Disease, 2023, United Kingdom

[2] World Health Organisation. Tobacco Fact Sheet. 2026

[3] Office for National Statistics. Adult smoking habits in the UK: 2025. APS results available here.

[4] Laverty AA, Filippidis FT, Taylor-Robinson D, et al. Smoking uptake in UK children: analysis of the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Thorax 2019 
NatCen Social Research. UK Government Press Release.

[5] DHSC, Fingertips smoking profile, smoking prevalence among people with long-term mental health conditions and serious mental illness. 2025

[6] Calculated from NHS England Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England, 2023 and ONS Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, Mid-2024. The Smoking Drinking and Drug Use Survey collects data on smoking among 11-15 year old secondary school pupils in England and is run by NHS England every two years. The most recent publication was in 2023. There were some changes to the administration of the survey in 2023 compared with previous years.

[7] NHS England Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England, 2023

[8] Tobacco smoke and involuntary smoking. IARC Monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans, 2004.

[9] NHS Digital. Statistics on Women's Smoking Status at Time of Delivery: England, Q4 2025/26

[10] National Cancer Institute. Harms of Cigarette Smoking and Health Benefits of Quitting. 2017

[11] National Toxicology Program. Tobacco-Related Exposures. In: Report on Carcinogens. Fourteenth Edition. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program, 2016.

[12] Banks, E., Joshy, G., Weber, M.F. et al. Tobacco smoking and all-cause mortality in a large Australian cohort study: findings from a mature epidemic with current low smoking prevalence. BMC Med, 2015

[13] Pirie K, Peto R, Reeves G et al. The 21st century hazards of smoking and benefits of stopping: a prospective study of one million women in the UK. The Lancet, 2012

[14] Doll R, Peto, R, Boreham & Sutherland I. Mortality in relation to smoking: 50 years’ observations on male British doctors. BMJ 2004; 328: 1519

[15]  Jackson, S.E., Jarvis, M.J. and West, R., The price of a cigarette: 20 minutes of life? Addiction, 2025

[16] Personal Habits and Indoor Combustions IARC Monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans. Volume 100E IARC, 2012

[17] Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Smoking and cancer. 2023

[18] Cancer Research UK. Tobacco Statistics – Lung cancer risk

[19] National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (US) Office on Smoking and Health. The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. 2014.

[20] Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Smoking, the heart and circulation. 2021

[21] Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Smoking and other health conditions. 2025

[22] Whitcomb BW, Purdue-Smithe AC, Szegda KL, Boutot ME, Hankinson SE, Manson JE, et al. Cigarette Smoking and Risk of Early Natural Menopause. American Journal of Epidemiology, 2018

[23] Royal College of Physicians. Passive smoking and children. A report by the Tobacco Advisory Group. London: RCP, 2010.

[24] Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Smoking, pregnancy and fertility. 2021

[25] Ms Allen, Ee Walter. Health-Related Lifestyle Factors and Sexual Dysfunction: A Meta-Analysis of Population-Based Research. The journal of sexual medicine, 2018

[26] Gs Ajmani, Hh Suh, Ke Wroblewski, Jm Pinto. Smoking and olfactory dysfunction: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis. The Laryngoscope, 2017 

[27] Nazir MA. Prevalence of periodontal disease, its association with systemic diseases and prevention. Int J Health Sci, 2017

[28] ASH Ready Reckoner, 2025

[29] Statistica. Leading tobacco companies worldwide in 2025, based on net sales.

[30] British American Tobacco BAT. At a glance.

[31] Imperial Brands. Full year results 2025.