Overview

Tobacco smoking is the single most important preventable cause of ill health and death in Australia. Tobacco smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, of which over 70 cause cancer.

More reports and statistics on tobacco smoking can be found under Alcohol, Alcohol & other drug treatment services and Illicit use of drugs.

Featured reports

See all reports

Latest findings

In 2019, 11.0% of Australians smoked tobacco daily, down from 12.2% in 2016 and 24% in 1991.

Non-medical pharmaceutical use is down, driven by a fall in use of pain-killers.

Between 2016 and 2019, the proportion of people who had ever used e-cigarettes rose from 8.8% to 11.3%.

Smoking rates increase with socioeconomic disadvantage, but illicit drug use highest in the most advantaged areas.

Australians are increasingly supportive of cannabis use and most support pill-testing.

In 2019, 43% of Australians had illicitly used a drug in their life and 16.4% had used one in the last 12 months.

Highlights

11%of people aged 14 and older smoked daily in 2019. This is down from 24% in 1991
People in their 40s and 50s were the most likely age group to smoke daily (16%) in 2019
10.2%of mothers smoked at any time during pregnancy in 2019, down from 14.6% in 2009
16.6 yearswas the average age at which 14–24 year-olds smoked their first full cigarette in 2019 compared with 14.3 years in 2001
13%of closed treatment episodes provided by specialist alcohol and other drug agencies in 2019–20 involved nicotine as an additional drug of concern
Only 2.1%of households with dependent children reported smoking inside the home in 2019. This has steadily declined from 20% in 2001