Summary
Tobacco causes health problems for people of all ethnicities.
Smoking cigarettes is the most common way of using tobacco in the UK. Black, Asian, and Chinese people are less likely to smoke than white people. People with mixed ethnicity are slightly more likely to smoke than white people. Over time, smoking is slowly becoming less common in people of all ethnicities.
In general, men are slightly more likely to smoke than women. This gender difference is bigger in people with Asian or Chinese ethnicity, where men are much more likely to smoke than women.
Some forms of tobacco other than cigarettes are more often used by certain ethnic minorities. Shisha pipes are most often used by Middle Eastern and South Asian Britons. Smokeless tobacco (e.g. naswar, paan or betel quid) is most often used by South Asian Britons. These ways of using tobacco are not safe and can cause health problems.
Ethnic minorities living in Britain have a higher risk of some diseases that can be caused by smoking than white Britons. If no-one used tobacco products, society would be more equal as well as healthier.